The Gods Must Be Crazy
by aprill99
Summary: As a daughter of Apollo and a granddaughter of Mercury who has lived through wars with Titans, Giants, and undead Romans, Cassie is well aware that "normal" must be judged on a curve. Still, the invasion of a Norse god backed by an alien army is taking it a little far. Now she's involved with the Avengers and it seems like life won't be getting less weird. The gods must be crazy.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing in the biggest way. In fact, the nothing that I own isn't technically mine. It's a loan from some very nice men named Risk Riordan, Joss Whedon, and some people at Marvel.**

So… It's entirely possible that Cassie's reaction to Loki's invasion of Manhattan isn't exactly appropriate. For one thing, the one and only thing she absolutely does not do is panic. She is however, a little pissed off.

The reason that Cassie doesn't panic is in part because her father is Apollo the god of prophecy. Her precognition isn't as strong as an oracle's or even as strong as her little brother Austin's, but she still has some which means the invasion doesn't come out of nowhere. In fact, she starts having dreams about what Loki is doing two full days before the invasion happens. It's not much, but it's enough time for her to let Chiron know and get Paul and Sally Jackson evacuated with Percy's little sister Rosie.

Unfortunately, knowing ahead of time isn't actually enough to get much help in shoring up the defenses around Manhattan. It's early May and camp hasn't really started yet so all of the demigods except for the year-rounders are dispersed all over the country. Besides, other monsters use Loki's invasion as an attempt to breach in to the world, particularly in the Bay Area. The other gods and demigods of the world have their hands full, and Cassie is on her own in New York.

The second half of the reason that Cassie doesn't panic is that she's, you know, not exactly new at this. In fact, dealing with invading gods has been pretty much her entire life since she was a very small child. She's actually getting kind of sick of it. In the last decade of her life, Cassie's fought three wars and countless battles and it's her firm conviction that almost all of it could have been avoided if the gods were a little less idiotically dickish.

 _Cough, cough._

Of course what she means to say is, if the gods were a little less majestically removed from the struggles of humanity.

Right.

Anyway, between having done this before and being somewhat forewarned, Cassie seriously fails to panic when Loki and his army of aliens invade. This pretty thoroughly marks out her reaction as being incorrect. Well, "incorrect" might not be the right word. Maybe she should say "seriously anti-typical."

The reason for the pissed off part of her reaction should be fairly obvious. Two invasions on one city in six years was just plain excessive. And as far as she could tell it was all just over blown familial conflict

Family conflict between gods that dragged other people in to their problems isn't actually a new issue for her. In fact, godly family conflicts that kept on dragging other people in to their problems is pretty much a constant in her life. Admittedly the Norse thing is a little unusual. Most of the gods she handles are more of the Grecco-Roman persuasion. Still, a god is a god and after twenty-two years Cassie is about sick of them just dropping in on her life.

Besides, originally Cassie had had plans for her week. These plans had mostly been about work and med-school. They had not included fighting off a psychotic god and his alien army.

That's another thing, alien army? Seriously? What the fuck was that all about?

Since finding out she was a half-blood at age eight Cassie has seen a whole lot of weird shit. In the last fourteen years she's fought gods, monsters, titans, giants, and reincarnated evil members of ancient Roman triumvirates. It takes a whole lot to surprise her.

Aliens though…

That's enough to do it.

When the aliens arrive Cassie is serving coffee at a shop near Stark Tower and counting down the minutes until her shift ends so she could change and get to her lecture on treating gunshot wounds. Being a demigod that's not the kind of injury she's used to treating. Really, that walk and lecture is all she wants for the remainder of her day.

Of course, the universe has never before cared what she wants. Why on earth would it start now? So, instead of the universe letting her collect her tips, clock out, and change in to her regular clothes for a leisurely walk to class at Columbia, there's a freaking alien invasion.

Typical.

Really before the alien invasion her week looks pretty normal since her precognition doesn't come with an ETA. She goes from work, to class, and sometimes back again depending on the day. Then she goes home and buries herself in homework. Thank the gods most medical textbooks are chalk full of Latin and Greek otherwise it would be pretty much impossible.

She patrols three nights out of the first five in the week and picks off a few monsters. A few more try to jump her at weird times on the subway, but she takes them out without much trouble. Seriously, it's a normal week.

Of course there is that one weird situation with the blonde guy who runs smack in to her in the middle of times square. The man is big, over six feet tall and seemingly solid muscle. He pauses, apologizing profusely, and catches her before she has time to hit the ground. The moment gives Cassie time to get the impression of combed blonde hair and blue eyes before the man vanishes down the street. A moment later a practical fleet of black-suited men go by, apparently racing after him.

It is also entirely possible that Cassie's definition of normal is about as appropriate as her reaction to the whole, "alien invasion" thing.

Still, the world in which Cassie lives is being invaded by a hostile force and Cassie is a highly trained demigod warrior. So, she does what any highly trained demigod warrior would do. She swears up a Greek and English blue streak so wide it would make a bilingual Argonaut proud, drops the coffee pot she's holding, and starts trying to shepherd the panicking costumers to somewhere safe. That somewhere happens to be the bathrooms which probably don't smell great but are at the very least less likely to structurally collapse if something heavy and or explosive hits the building. Which is a situation that, from Cassie's experience, seems depressingly likely.

Once everyone else is hunkered down as much as they can be Cassie creeps back out in to the main portion of the restaurant and grabs her bag from behind the counter where all of the employees stash their stuff. There is screaming and the sounds of general carnage coming from outside but Cassie does her best to prioritize. Before she can help anyone else she needs to be ready. Growing up with Annabeth Chase taught her the benefits of strategic thinking.

Cassie pulls out the armor she's been carrying around since she got her first vision and after a quick glance around she strips of her yellow waitress uniform and changes in to it. Her armor was made for her specially by Jake Mason. It's lightweight dark leather interwoven and reinforced with celestial bronze and imperial gold. It's light enough for her to move and shoot freely but still strong enough to stop everything from blades and teeth, to arrows and claws.

She stands up and takes a solid moment to look out in to the street and survey the situation. It's impossible to see much besides a few people running by and the occasional chunk of falling debris. With a sigh, she prepares to leave the relative shelter of the cafe. Of course, she knows that the structure of the building won't actually offer much protection against say, an angry god. Still, a strong portion of Cassie's instincts are screaming that being inside is still safer than being exposed.

Oh well, self-preservative instincts exist to be ignored.

Cassie darts out the door so quickly that the bell at the top barely has time to chime before she's standing outside on the pavement. The sun is shining brightly that day and the warm rays soaked in to her hair and skin. If there has to be an alien invasion, at least it's happening on a day where she can be at full power.

She scopes the outside of the building and feels a twinge of satisfaction when she sees that the fire escape is still intact for the moment. With deft movements she grabs on and begins to climb. The steps are rickety and the railings are leaving flecks of rust on her palms. If it had been a less insane situation Cassie might have taken a moment to worry about weather her tetanus shot was up to date. As it is, she has bigger problems.

A few moments later her fingers can splay across the edge of the cement rooftop so she pulls herself up and over it. She claps her hands together to rub off the remaining flecks of rust and takes a moment to get a look around. Cassie has always preferred higher vantage points as most of her combat skills are more long range than they are close quarters. This rooftop is definitely better than ground level but it still isn't perfect. So much in Manhattan is taller than this little rooftop.

Still, now she can at least see the rest of the block. The obstructed view might have been nicer. Two highly destructive battles in six years are seriously not doing any favors for the city skyline. Cassie shudders to think of the cost of all of the property damage. If this pattern she keeps up she might seriously invent god insurance.

If Cassie wants a real vantage point of this battle she'll have to be both closer and higher up. With a running leap, Cassie launches herself over the far edge of the roof to the next building over. That building is close enough to the next one over to allow her to wedge herself between the two exterior walls and free climb it to the top. Using that method and frequently checking her sight lines Cassie systematically scales several stories before she actually stops moving.

When she does stop she finally has a clear view of most of the city and her heart is pumping the blood through her veins in a steady, pounding rhythm she can hear in her own ears. From this high up the cars look like match box toys and the people look an awful lot like ants. Thalia would definitely hate it if she were there.

Her newly established perch is littered with broken glass, cigarettes, and pigeon droppings but at least from here she can see. As she watches the hole in the sky seems to swell and expand and a fresh horde of aliens washes through. She's still too far away to see most of the details.

Cassie reaches up and grips the bow and arrow charm hanging just below the collar of her shirt. She spins the charm with a practiced motion and a moment later she's holding a golden yew bow and her quiver is a familiar weight against her back. The weapon had been a present from her father on her tenth birthday and she had carried it ever since. Unstringing the bow turned the weapon back in to a necklace and her quiver was enchanted to never run out of arrows.

The weapon feels warm and comfortingly familiar in her hands. Cassie notches her first arrow and takes aim at the hole in the ceiling of the world. She concentrates her vision on the vague outlines of the creatures gathering there and waits for her eyes to adjust. A moment later her vision jolts and sharpens. The picture clarifies like hitting zoom on a camera.

The moment brings a smile to her lips. The first time she had tried that particular trick she had been eleven and gotten dizzy and thrown up. Over a decade later and there's barely a moment needed to adjust to the shift in perspective.

Extreme close up vision doesn't improve the look of the aliens any. They are scaly, slimy, greyish-brownish-green creatures wearing some kind of armor that looks like it has been cobbled together from bits of ancient equipment and stuff from the space-age. Whatever, weak spots were weak spots and Cassie takes aim and fires.

"Huh," Cassie said, watching as her arrow found its mark. A spurt of greenish black blood comes from the creature's throat and it jerks once as it dies. "No disintegration," she comments to herself. "Good to know."

Now that she knows that the aliens can die, Cassie sets to work picking them off from her perch. She's far enough away that she figures she probably has about two minutes before the aliens start figuring out where the arrows are coming from. The mental countdown starts ticking the moment her first shot lands. In the end she gets one hundred and sixteen seconds before the first bit of her plan expires, which, for the overall shelf life of demigod plans, really isn't all that bad.

When the first aliens turn and begin zooming towards her on their weird air-jet ski things Cassie still steadfastly refused to panic. Instead, she very calmly kicks in the roof access door and finds herself immediately in a rather dark, very narrow stairwell. Cassie examines the steps and grimly concludes that it would take too long to run down them.

The building is however, equipped with a wonderfully convenient railing. Thirty seconds and a probably ill-advised nearly vertical slide later, Cassie is standing on the ground floor feeling not a little bit wobbly. The exact level of verticality involved in her method of descent may have been a little bit miscalculated.

A booming crash echoes from outside. Cassie spares a single moment to take a breath and center herself. She adjusts her grip on her bow one final time. Then she runs outside in to a war zone.

"Oh my gods," she breaths.

There really isn't anything else she can think of to say.

It isn't that there were still people running around panicking and banging off the walls. In fact, the street is totally and completely devoid of people. The streets are completely filled with rubble however. Bricks, mortar, and huge chunks of concrete are scattered all over the pavement which itself is now cracked and pitted. The sounds of fighting and panic that had originally drawn her out of the building seem to have moved by several blocks.

Of course, now that she's out in the open the squadron of aliens dispatched to deal with her have begun immediately zeroing in on her location. Cassie dives to avoid a pulse of nasty looking blue energy and came up shooting. Two of the bad guys drop immediately but three others are still alive and kicking after the initial volley. She picks off the first but the second rams in to her and Cassie goes airborne.

Her unplanned flight launches her straight through a glass store front and her whole body throbs. Her vision blacks out for a moment and all of the breath is knocked out of her lungs. Cassie hauls herself up, shaking glass fragments out of her clothes. More of it is stuck in the plait of her braid and she has what feels like a quarter of the window digging in to her skin. This is why her armor has long sleeves.

Upside. The store she's been thrown in to happens to specialize in sporting goods. After confirming that no aliens are coming in after her, Cassie helps herself to a hunting rifle and slings it across her shoulders with her quiver. The ammunition she zips in to one of the convenient pockets Jake had incorporated. Cassie normally doesn't like guns but this feels like the situation to use one. Her aim will be perfect either way.

Now as well armed as she could be without stopping off at home to pick up more weapons, Cassie climbs back out through the window she had been smashed through. Her skin starts to knit back together the moment she emerges in to the sunshine. The magic pushes the glass shards free, warming her skin as ruptured cells are knit back together and lost blood is rapidly replaced.

Any other repair work will have to happen on the move. Cassie leaves at a jog, not really knowing where shes going. She simply moves towards where the carnage and screaming seemes to be at its thickest, clearing a path as she goes.

A bolt of lightning splits the sky, striking a point two blocks away on one of the bridges. Gods she hates fighting on Manhattan bridges. What's so great about the damn things anyway? Her brother Michael had died fighting on a Manhattan bridge.

The smell of ozone assaults her nose and Cassie adjusts her course. Wherever the Norse god Thor is going, that's probably where the battle is at its thickest. It was also hopefully where anyone else capable of fighting off the invasion was.

Thor's presence also explains why none of the Greek or Roman gods have been willing to help. They would consider it a Norse problem and write it off completely unless it threatened their existence. Gods the gods' territorial tendencies were a pain in the ass.

If the battle drags on for long enough Cassie knows that the forces of Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter will eventually come to help. Of course that assumes that they will be able to fight off every other force of evil currently trying to invade the world. Privately Cassie was praying that the battle would be over before more help was needed. Her friends had done enough.

"How do we do this?" a woman with short red hair and a black leather combat suite is asking as Cassie approaches.

"As a team," answers a man who from the outfit can only be Captain America. Chiron keeps a vintage poster of the man on the wall in his study at Camp. Cassie vaguely remembers hearing a news story about his recovery in the ice. She winces involuntarily on his behalf. That had only been about a week ago, around when her visions of Loki started.

Thor grumbles, armor on and hammer in hand. "I have unfinished business with Loki."

"Yeah?" says the fourth and last member of the group. He's shorter than the other two men and wearing some form of battle gear that leaves his frankly huge biceps uncovered. A bow and quiver hang over his back and he holds three arrows in his grip, examining their points. His hand guard is configured for a lefty. Idly Cassie wonders if it's possible they're related. "Well get in line."

"Save it," Captain America snaps pacing away. "Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us and that's what we need. Without him, these things could run wild." He's still pacing and Cassie prepares to reveal herself. A tactics discussion and game plan is imminent and she'll probably need to be a part of it to be any help.

"We've got Stark up top," he continues, gesturing at the sky. Cassie supposes that that must be where Iron Man is at the moment. "He's going to need us to-"

He breaks off at the sound of an approaching motorcycle and the assembled group turns their focus to the newcomer. Cassie takes the opportunity to straighten up from behind the overturned car she's been using for cover and walk forward. She wants to get a good look at who this new person is too.

The new guy doesn't look like anything special to Cassie but his presence clearly means something to everyone else. It's just a man, probably in his mid-forties with dark hair that's flecked with gray at the temples. He's almost short at about five eight probably, with broad shoulders. His clothes don't quite fit him either. In short, the man could have been any professor Cassie had ever had at Columbia. Though if anyone knows not to judge people based on experience it's a demigod

"So," he says in a voice that is surprisingly soft. "This all seems horrible."

"I've seen worse," the red haired woman comments flatly.

So has Cassie. Wars tend to be messy and she tends to end up right in the middle of them a little more often than she liked. The man who looks like a professor looks at the woman apologetically. "I'm sorry."

The woman shakes her head. "No, we could use a little worse."

Making a split decision Cassie ducks low again and pulls out her headphones, slipping them in and adjusting the frequency setting on her phone. This particular object happens to be a joint gift from Apollo and Mercury, the Roman equivalent to Hermes. Mercury also happens to be her grandfather. Anyway, after a little fiddling she can hear everything that the assembled group is saying to one another.

The link comes online just in time for Cassie to hear Stark say "-Bringing the party to you."

Right on time Cassie sees the Iron Man suite flying straight down the street towards them followed closely by something that looks bizzarly like a metal plated flying boney whale. Cassie has never seen anything like it. And if you considered the fact that she had once fought an army of cereal grain spirits, that's saying something.

"I don't see how that's a party," the red-haired woman named Natasha mutters as Thor flips his hammer in his hand and Captain America adjusts his shield grip. Cassie agrees with Natasha whole heartedly and notches her bow with an arrow she's pretty sure will blow up when it hits its target. The different kinds of projectiles she carries got jumbled up in her quiver sometimes.

Captain America addresses the man who had arrived just after Cassie. "Doctor Banner, now might be a really good time for you to get angry." Cars are being flipped and buildings demolished as the beast draws closer.

Banner turns with a grim smile. "That's my secret Captain," he says. "I'm always angry." Then the man who had looked so much like a teacher or scientist, the kind of man Cassie wouldn't have blinked twice at on a random street began to change. His body grows and distorted until he seems at least fifteen feet tall. His skin turns a bright radioactive green and this new creature lets out a guttural roar.

The Hulk catches the alien creature with a single hand to the face, like a football player performing a block. The thing begins to flip, it's body armor flexing and bending in on itself. "Hold on!" Stark shouts over the line, zooming in front of the rest of them to fire off some kind of missile. Cassie has spent enough time hanging out with Leo Valdez to take cover like a pro which she does.

By the time the air has cleared of fire and dust Cassie notes that the others have formed a loose circle. It's an old tactic but it does have its merits. This way they'll see everything and it's unlikely the aliens will be able to sneak up on them. Cassie begins scouting around for a new perch.

As a new wave of aliens come through the portal they snap back in to motion. "Call it Captain," Stark invites.

The Captain takes the floor immediately. His voice is completely confident as he begins to give orders and Cassie listens carefully. Between Annabeth and Frank she knows how critical the exact details of a plan are to a good tactician, and Captain America if the history textbooks she studied growing up is most certainly that.

"Alright listen up. Until we can close that portal our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof," he points to indicate a tall building with a good view and stable ledge to shoot from. "Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays." Barton nods.

"Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

Baton looks over at Stark. "Wanna give me a lift?"

Stark nods and moves towards him, griping the archer by the elbows. "Right. Better clench up Legolas." The two take off with a burst of the thrusters on Stark's suite.

Cap continues outlining his strategy. "Thor," he says. "You've got to try to bottle neck that portal. Slow them down. You've got the lightning, light the bastards up. "Thor doesn't respond verbally but he begins to spin his hammer in a circle so quickly it blurs. A moment later he has taken to the sky as well. The only people left on the ground now were her, Natasha, the Hulk, and the Captain himself.

"Natasha," he said. "You and me we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here."

Cassie grins in spite of herself as she picks her perch. The sun pounds down on the back of her neck and she focused on the power of the rays, feeling the warmth permeate every single part of her. A moment later her skin was practically thrumming with power. This part could actually be kind of fun. She winks out of existence in a flash of golden light and reappears on a building ledge some seventeen stories above the rest of the battle. She brings the rifle up to her shoulder. Time to get to work.

For a while after that she loses track of time. She fires shot after shot with her rifle but before long she runs out of ammunition and switches back to her bow. She fires explosive arrows, sonic cry arrows, ones that split in to multiple heads and deliver electric shocks. Cassie even fires off a few that spew paint and root beer that had been gifts from the Party Ponies. The only thing she steers deliberately clear of is Greek fire. The destruction of the city is bad enough already without throwing in fire that can't be put out

Cassie looks around as she fires and let her vision wander, spin, and zoom to survey the scene. Barton points Stark to where Thor is blasting a squadron of aliens with charges of lightning. Stark flies off to join in and Cassie flips her vision in to focus on Natasha and Captain America who are being slowly circled by the enemy.

She fires off a few shots, taking down some of the circling enemies. It clears the way for Captain America and Natasha to keep moving. "Nice one Barton," the captain calls and Cassie swears, flashing to a different rooftop. She had been trying to avoid drawing attention to herself. Norse gods invading is bad enough. She totally doesn't want to have to explain the whole demigod deal. Luckily for her the battle seems to be too chaotic for any of the other combatants on team Earth to try to figure out the source of her mystery arrows.

The fight continues and Cassie dedicates herself to picking off any alien who gets too close to a civilian. She uses her powers carefully, firing arrow after arrow. When she doesn't have time to fire her bow she uses her magic instead.

In some ways Cassie is really very lucky. Apollo may be a shitty dad but he did bless her with a certain abundance of power at birth in anticipation of the prophecy of eight which probably should have been called the prophecy of ten given the amount of work Reyna and Nico put in. Thanks to some solid pre and post birth blessing plus the extra infusion of godly blood on her mother's side from Mercury Cassie has a bit more power over light and sound than her siblings.

Normally she keeps a pretty solid lid on her abilities for the sake of keeping a low profile, but if ever there is a time to use magic an alien invasion is probably it. Besides, with Loki leading the army and Thor flying around manipulating the weather a little bit more godly power from her probably isn't going to stick out so much. At least no monster of Tartarus have chosen to make an appearance.

Cassie pulls out all the stops, taking as many risks as she dares. She focuses light to create lasers and sets several aliens on fire that way. If any aliens get too close to her Cassie either gives them a slice and dice treatment or blasts them backwards with sound waves. A few times she borrows a trick from will and emits a whistle of sonic proportions. It would be a lie to say that seeing the aliens explode in a shower of greenish-black gick doesn't give her a sense of nearly visceral satisfaction.

Sooner or later the battle will have to end though. Cassie can't keep firing forever magically or otherwise. She can do a lot more than a mortal, more than some demigods too if she's being honest, but she can't keep it up forever. Channeling too much magic will eventually burn her up, and Cassie isn't sure how much longer she can last.

Mere moments after the thought crosses her mind a sonic bam sends an atomic level shockwave through the entire city and Cassie knows instinctively that it's the effect of a nuclear bomb going off somewhere far away. The ground doesn't shake but Cassie is more sensitive to vibration and wave change than most and she feels the ripple from her toes to the crown of her head. It is, too put it mildly, extremely unpleasant.

The full truth of it is that she feels like her entire body has been changed in to a tuning fork. Each of her bones vibrates so hard her teeth click and her head aches and a moment later her vision blacks out but she doesn't lose consciousness. In her experience unconsciousness is normally substantially less painful. Shit starts hurting after you wake up again.

She doesn't know how long she's out but when the pain recedes she finds herself collapsed on the pavement. Her bow lies on the ground a few feet away but at the moment Cassie isn't sure if she could fire it anyway. Sharp pain radiates through her hands and feet and Cassie's more medical senses inform her helpfully that the vibrations have put several dozen fractures in to the smaller bones that make up her fingers and toes. They'll heal pretty fast but Cassie isn't going anywhere until they are.

At least the battle seems to be over. Around her are the bodies of multiple aliens which seem to have died Phantom Menace style when the bomb went off. A good look around as her vision settles out tells her that the explosion happened far enough away to prevent more structural damage and falling debris in the city.

With a pained sigh Cassie hauls herself in to a sitting position and scrubs a hand over her face tiredly. It's not running a marathon but considering what she'd done already that morning it still feels like an accomplishment she can be proud of. Her fractured bones jolt as the pieces click in to place and Cassie can't help but wince. No matter how many times she's done it, re-growing her own bones still hurts like a bitch.

Cassie remains seated for a few more moments after the healing is over to make sure the patchwork on her bones is solid. Besides, sitting still is finally letting the adrenaline high she's been riding since that morning crash and suddenly she's tired in the soul smothering way that only comes from drawn three-sixty combat. It's also an after effect of heavy magic use and Cassie reaches for her quiver and the emergency ambrosia square she keeps in the bottom of it.

The square is a little bit smashed but fortunately godly food didn't need to look nice to be edible. Cassie considers for a moment and then breaks the square in half and pops it in to her mouth. The taste of hot chocolate with cinnamon and vanilla biscotti spreads across her tongue as warmth spreads down in to her stomach and all the way in to her fingers and toes. Her heartbeat picks up and Cassie registers her temperature spike. Eating half the square only had been a good call.

With a grunt, Cassie scrambles ungracefully to her feet. Her knee gives a frightening click as a fragment of her patella pops back in to place. Cassie mashes down the uncomfortable notion that it previously hadn't been attached and she hadn't noticed. In her book, it's now fixed so whatever.

It takes her a few moments but she manages to orient herself and find her way back to the café where she had started her morning. On the way she turns her bow back in to her necklace and field strips the riffle she had "borrowed". She cleans the pieces and tosses them as she walks, leaving a trail of violent bread crumbs behind. Like Gretel from the fairytale. If Gretel had been hip with modern warfare.

She also pulls off as many pieces of armor as she could. Now that the aliens are gone it wouldn't be long before the mortals started coming out to try to rebuild and help the wounded. That's what mortals did. They suffered great tragedy and then they reset and started over again. It's a resilience that Cassie admires every time she sees it, and it's one that almost all gods failed to value correctly.

The point is Cassie doesn't want some brave average Joe to walk outside and freak at the sight of a twenty-two year-old in battle armor. She isn't sure how strong the Mist is at the moment but she's willing to bet that whatever can be seen through it isn't that pretty. No need to add to the impending hysteria.

After stopping at the café to pick up her bag Cassie double times back to her apartment to ditch her armor. A quick glance at herself in her bathroom mirror shows her that she looks every bit as messed up as she feels. Her clothes, hair, and exposed skin are covered in grime and gore. Thankfully the constituents of the cafe had been evacuated on Captain America's orders and no one had been there to freak out earlier. In Cassie's book that's miracle number two of all of the post battle timeline. Miracle number one had been that her apartment building was relatively unscathed.

Cassie gives her hands and face a quick splash to rid them of the worst of the grime and finger combs a few of the bigger chunks of glass out of her hair. She figures she probably looks a little less frightening now which is good. People don't let doctors treat them when their doctors are frightening.

The medical bag she keeps ready in her apartment at all times is large and comprehensive. It's a big messenger bag made out of dark leather and contains everything from bandages and gauze, to sewing kits and glue, to rubbing alcohol and Neosporin. At least, that's the majority of it. There's a level lower down for demigod treatment that holds nectar, ambrosia, and unicorn draught. It's too large to carry every day without it being considered odd so she only ever pulls it out when she's working medic duty.

And for the next several hours that's what she is; a medic.

She seeks out injured civilians and policemen…really anyone who got on the wrong end of rubble, explosions, or alien weapons and does whatever she can to help. Sometimes there's debris to shift through but she does it more easily than a mortal might so she commits herself and gets it done. Cassie stitches, cleans, and binds cuts. She relocates joints, wraps sprains, and even sets bones.

Mostly she doesn't use any magic. Part of Chiron's important protocol is that they don't use their powers on mortals. Cassie makes a few exceptions in certain cases when she can be sure that there are no witnesses and that she can help. She does it sparingly and paces herself to avoid exhaustion.

Cassie attaches a severed arm and re-inflates a crushed lung. She heals one man with third degree burns all over his face and one eye almost melted shut. Once she fixes a cracked skull and then later the spinal cord of a little girl she finds have crushed by a fallen telephone pole.

She makes her way through the city that way for as long as she can but after three hours she's reaching her limit. The last of the godly food that she can safely take is long gone and Advil isn't really cutting her headache anymore. A glance up shows her that the sun has almost completely vanished in to the horizon and night is creeping in which explains why Cassie's running on empty. Sooner or later she'll have to stop and right now it's looking like sooner.

A singular Shwarma joint situated between a laundromat and a comic book store catches her eye because the lights are still on. It seems impossible but the place is somehow still open. "Wow," Cassie mutters, feeling impressed. "That is one stubborn falafel vender." She wonders idly if the owners are related to the people who run Fadlan's over in Boston.

That reminds her. The next time she has a free weekend she needs to have a talking to with some people over that way. The Norse gods are supposed to be a problem for the Boston based warriors of Valhalla, not New York City demigods. Annabeth probably won't mind if she only beats her cousin Magnus a little bit. Hades, once Annabeth gets a look at the architectural damage involved here she might lend Cassie a hand.

With a sigh she takes a step forward. "Last one _,_ " she promises herself. "One more building Cassie and then you go home." She knows that talking to yourself isn't normally a good thing but Cassie doesn't have anyone else to talk to right now and saying it out loud makes it more real. If the words don't have sound and shape they can still be ignored. Out loud they are a deal with an end she has to uphold.

People are moving around inside the building, casting long shadows across the glass. Cassie thinks that's a good sign. Movement usually means that any injuries aren't life threatening. Besides, the movements are slow and steady which probably means that they aren't being made by somebody panicking.

The door opens under her fingers with barely any pressure and Cassie just about falls through it. The bell above her head tinkles and the sound is so incongruous with everything else in her day that it kind of makes her want to laugh. A crunch comes from below her feet as she steps on a piece of broken glass and the laugh dies in Cassie's throat before it can ever pass her lips.

The windows are blown out and Cassie is pretty sure that the glass they used to be made out of is currently forming the restaurant's new carpet. A chunk of the carpet seems to have been blown apart and the lights overhead flicker every few seconds. However, that's not the most shocking thing about the scene that greats her.

No, the most shocking thing is just how calm everybody inside the Shwarma joint seems to be.

An elderly man with grey hair and a teenaged boy who might have been the man's son are sweeping placidly. A woman in a hijab is cooking behind the counter. The only customers are seated in the middle of the room where a few tables have been pushed together to make one. They also happen to be the very people Cassie's been listening to over the special application on her phone for the last several hours as they coordinated to defend Manhattan.

Stark, Natasha, and Banner look up when she enters and Barton has an arrow aimed at her neck before she can blink. He's a quick draw and it crosses her mind that it's possible the archer might be related to her somehow. Cassie thinks it's a testament to how tired they all must be that she hasn't already been shot, hulked on, given a face full of patriotic shield, or blasted by repulsers and lightning.

As it is, Clint puts his weapon down as soon as he sees that her hands are at shoulder height, palms open. She's clearly unarmed and must look a bit like she's been hit by a semi-truck. Overall, clearly not a threat.

Natasha looks her up and down and then turns away. Banner regards her with tired brown eyes and then goes back to picking at the pita bread in front of him. Thor doesn't even seem to register her presence around his sandwich which is probably good because Cassie has no idea how to explain her existence right now. Captain America looks asleep in his plate and Stark just fixes her with inquisitive eyes.

"Can we help you somehow?" he asks. He tries to sound smug and dismissive but Cassie has seen enough battle fatigue to know what it looks like. She also happens to know that the best way to deal with smartass comments at a time like this is to just push on past it.

"If I move is someone going to blast me or something?" she asks. It might not be the most sensitive thing to say but it gets her message across. Cassie decides to take the lack of response as an assurance that she can move without provoking violence so she drops her hands and gestures to her bag which at this point is cutting in to her shoulder pretty badly. Actually the weight is starting to cut off her circulation and her fingers feel numb and kind of tingly. "I'm a medic. Is anyone here injured?"

Stark glances around at the assembled group. "Uh… yeah. Try pretty much all of us."

Cassie nods, kneels down and starts unloading the contents of her bag. It's a series of motions she's performed countless times in the last few hours and she ignored the jab of pain she feels as she hits the ground and a sliver of glass cuts in to the skin of her knee. She winces but finishes unloading on autopilot, running an inventory on her supplies. Hopefully she'll have enough left to treat this group.

She looks up. "Who's first?" she asks, running her gaze over the group members. Blood is crusted along Stark's temple and Barton has his foot propped on the back of Natasha's chair. Either seem like they could be decent places to start. They both nod their permission and Cassie goes to work as efficiently as she can.

Stark's cuts are pretty easy to treat. Most head wounds look worse than they actually are and once the blood is off there's a nasty bruise and a decent cut but nothing too critical. She shines a light in his eyes and diagnoses a concussion based on pupillary response. "Don't sleep for more than three hours at a time for a little while," she warns.

The man goes to protest but Banner quells him with a look. "I'll tell whoever looks after him tonight and keep an eye on him until then," he tells her. Cassie wonders if maybe the man is a physician in another life but either way he seems capable of doing what he says so she moves on.

Barton's ankle is a wrap and pack job which she carries out in four minutes flat. A look at his head brings the concussion count up to two and Cassie pulls the contents of a plate glass window out of his arms. The only note she gives him is, "maybe think about sleeves next time you jump through a window."

Natasha is remarkable unscathed and all she really needs is some burn salve and a few stitches. Cassie applies them and leaves after care instructions before she moves on. Thor is snoring contentedly by the time she's done working on Natashsa and Cassie feels satisfied she's done a good job.

Then she notes the pool of blood spreading from below Captain America's chair. He's been silent the entire time and Cassie had assumed he was asleep but now she thinks that assumption might have been wrong. Drops of scarlet are leaking down from his side, soaking in to the fabric of his uniform and adding to the puddle on the floor.

A few cusswords spring to mind for immediate use but Cassie doesn't say them. For one thing swearing won't help and for another they're in Greek which might raise more questions than she's ready to answer. Instead she stumbles over holding tweezers, gauze, tape, and rubbing alcohol. She doesn't know how super soldiers heal but something is keeping Captain America bleeding which means it's probably really bad.

As lightly as she can Cassie lifts Captain America's arm and prods his side. What she finds there isn't good. A sizable chunk of rebar is embedded in his flesh just under his ribs. The blood on the floor is dripping of the edge of the metal like sap being tapped from a maple tree.

In a word, ouch.

Cassie glances up at him and presses against the wound again. "Can you feel that?" she asks. "Pain, the pressure, anything?"

The Captain shrugs which Cassie translates to mean _Yes it hurts but I didn't know how bad it was and was planning to just tough it out until it felt better._ She rolls her eyes and bites her tongue to hold of the rant she wants to deliver on proper medical care. Instead she shrugs and says, "Well if you didn't feel anything before you're about to."

Movements economical, Cassie gets a grip on the end of the rebar with her tweezers and pulls it out. The pull is clean, the angle steady, and the metal slides free in one piece with a sickening _shick._ With the obstruction removed blood begins to seep from the cut below but Cassie packs the gap with gauze, applies pressure, and hopes she's gaged the healing factors at play correctly.

The first pad of gauze she uses soaks through quickly as does the second. Cassie does her best to stem her natural reaction but she's too tired to repress it completely. A single spark of magic escapes her, running down her arm and fingers in to the skin near the wound. It sinks in and the Captain jolts, dislodging the gauze pad.

"Sorry," she says quickly. "That happens sometimes. Electrostatic shock." She rocks back on her heals and reaches for her rubbing alcohol. Then she pauses, wondering if Captain America can even get infections. She thinks about asking but the good Captain seems half asleep again and Cassie isn't sure if he even knows his own middle name right now. To be on the safe side Cassie splashes the cut anyway and tapes a new gauze patch over it.

She pushes herself back up to standing and sways as black spots dance in her vision. Calories and sleep both need to happen sooner rather than later. Sooner if she has anything to say about it. Her next step wobbles and Cassie grips the back of a chair to stay upright. Dimly she registers that a small stream of blood is soaking the fabric around her knee. It isn't healing as quickly as normal and consuming anymore godly food might literally set her on fire. And flames are not a good look if Leo is anything to go by.

A hand lands on her arm and Cassie would have jumped and possibly judo flipped the culprit if her energy reserves weren't already crashed at far below zero. "Have a seat," Natasha says, gesturing towards an empty chair that's been pulled up between her and Captain America. The woman doesn't give her much of a choice and Cassie isn't anywhere near fighting condition so she goes with the pull.

As soon as Cassie's seated exhaustion washes over her in one long wave. There's a little voice in the back of her head screaming at her to keep moving but the tiredness drowns it out. Instead of getting up and sprinting out of the restaurant Cassie curls up, drawing her feet off the ground and tucking them beneath her. Her knee is still bleeding but for the moment Cassie decides to ignore it in favor of picking at the plate of chicken shish kabob that lands in front of her without her having to order it.

The food is delicious and Cassie doesn't fully realize how hungry she is until she starts eating. She digs in and makes a mental note to burn an offering for the gods when she gets home later just to be on the safe side. Two plates and three large glasses of water later Cassie finally feels as though she might actually have enough calories in her to manage walking home without passing out.

"Thanks for the food," Cassie says. It's aimed at the group in general and possibly the super-tough kitchen staff but she's got a feeling Stark's probably the one paying the bill. Actually she kind of hopes that the owners of this place will wake up tomorrow to find an extra-large cash deposit in their account tomorrow curtesy of Super Heroes Incorporated.

She rises and Banner moves with her, holding out a hand to shake. Cassie glances around and realizes that he does it because pretty much the entire rest of the table is passed out. Captain America is resting his head on his palm, eyes shut. Natasha is using Barton's book as a pillow and Barton himself is reclined with his arms crossed over his head breathing the deep breaths of the truly exhausted. Thor is awake but seems deeply invested in consuming some sort of lamb and rice dish and Stark is staring blankly at the wall like it's suddenly become extremely interesting.

Cassie takes Banner's outstretched hand and shakes it. The man's grip is purposefully gentle like he's afraid to grip too hard and Cassie thinks how terrifying it must be to not know how strong you are in your own body. "Thank you for the medical attention Doctor," he says. "I'll make sure to wake them up in a few hours."

"I'm not a doctor yet," Cassie says. "Just finishing my second year of med school."

The man smiles. "Well good luck. I hear third year's the hardest but it's worth it." With that Cassie realizes that Banner, no matter what he turns in to when angry is a doctor. The creature who destroys is also a man who in some capacity or another heals.

If this conversation were occurring under any other circumstances Cassie might have gone in to an involved discussion about what her future hopes were. She would have talked about what she wants to learn next year and the hospitals she's considering doing her internship and residency in. Now though, all she has energy for is a last nod and an exhausted half smile. These things don't cost anything so she gives them freely and then makes for the door.

The movement seems to jerk Stark out of whatever daze he'd been in and he calls after her, stopping her in her tracks. "Are you _walking_ home through the city disaster zone?" he asks incredulously. He stands and continues speaking as he walks. "You know, the one still filled with people panicking and structural instability?"

"I can take care of myself," Cassie replies. Without realizing she's done it, her fingers go to the pendant at the hollow of her throat. "After all, today I survived an alien invasion. Not to jinx it too epically but I don't think much else can possibly happen to me today."

Stark makes a humming noise like a computer processing. "Not good enough," he concludes. "You did us a solid. People who help us out don't have to walk home." He pulls out a cellphone which immediately makes Cassie take a step back. She has slightly better luck with mortal technology than some demigods being the granddaughter of Mercury, but broadcasting signals around her location is still never advisable. Cellphones are generally an unnecessary risk.

This time she can't argue the results.

Instead of an unspeakable Greek monster from legend coming to eat her for a late night snack, a driver in a town car arrives to collect her and drive her home. Where Tony Stark manages to procure that kind of car with a matching suited driver directly post-alien invasion Cassie would never know. She supposes the phrase "more money than Gods" has credence after all.

The car is wonderful. Its air conditioned to the perfect temperature and the seats are softly textured leather. Cassie gives the driver her address and kicks back, figuring she'll at least enjoy the experience. It'll be the silver lining on her exceedingly screwed up day.

When they pull up in front of her apartment building Cassie thanks the man who drove her and climbs out. The stairs up to her floor seem to present more of a challenge than they ever have before and she takes them at a snail's pace. Cassie has never hated her building's lack of an elevator more than she does in this moment.

Once she's in her apartment all Cassie wants to do is collapse in to bed and sleep for a week. Unfortunately, she has something she has to do first if she wants to avoid the gods getting pissed with her, which as it happens she very much does. She flips on the gas burner on her stove and says the necessary blessing. When the magical flame is glowing with a merry golden light she throws in an apple, a bagel, a scoop of Sally Jackson's seven-layer dip, and a bag of M&Ms. The items vanish in to the flames and Cassie sends out a general _thanks for helping me not die_ prayer. It's possible she should be more specific but right now she's too tired to bother so that'll have to be good enough.

With that out of the way Cassie drags herself through a scolding hot shower. The water feels amazing on her tense muscles and the smell of her shampoo is calming. Then she stumbles over to her bead and collapses on top of it. Her last thought before passing out is that it might be time to transfer out of New York and finish school somewhere a little less insane.

D.C is supposed to be nice this time of year.

 **A/N:So that's the end of the chapter. It might be the end of the story if no one is interested in reading anymore. If you want more I have a rough idea in my mind of where to go next. I kind of set it up there at the end. So, if it sucked, let me know. If you want to see what happens when our girl Cassie is living across the hall from Captain America, let me know that too. I'm open to suggestions and you should know that more Percy Jackson characters will make appearances. I have some good plans for Rachel Dare. I also have some nice plans for Bucky and an altered timeline where team dynamics are changed up a bit. Either way, Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing except Cassie and the shenanigans she gets up to that you can't recognize from any known Marvel or Percy Jackson media source. Everything you might recognize belongs to other people much wealthier and more legally well armed than I am. In short, suing me would really not be worth it. Thank you. Read on.**

Getting out of New York City isn't difficult for Cassie. As it turns out, having a god from Norse mythology invade a city with an alien army doesn't do any favors for that city's desirability as a location in which to live and work. Cassie is by no measure the only one leaving and her academic advisor at Columbia doesn't even seem all that surprised when she asks for the transfer paperwork. On the contrary, she hands it over with a harried sigh and shuffles her out the door to get to her next appointment after telling Cassie that this is her third repetition of the same meeting.

Despite having both the ADHD and dyslexia typical of a demigod, Cassie actually has good grades. It helps that her mother homeschooled her until she was six and then Chiron had picked back up again when she had arrived at camp at age eight. She had gone to college in New Rome which had catered to demigods and it helps that a large percentage of medical school involves both Latin and Greek. Those grades combined with great MCAT scores and a few connections afforded her through the Twelfth Legion and Cassie has an acceptance letter to Georgetown by the end of the month.

Having lived most of her life either nomadically, or in a cabin with a minimum of three other people, Cassie has never really been a packrat. In fact, she's not really any kind of "rat", pack or otherwise. Basically she just doesn't have stuff. Put in very simple terms, Cassie manages to get everything she owns out of her apartment and in to three large duffle bags, one backpack, and her purse in less than six hours.

The train ticket she buys is outrageously overpriced but she supposes the rates are jacked to the "a massive alien invasion just happened and everyone wants to get out of this freaking nut box disaster zone" levels. If invasions are good for one thing, it's the public transportation system. If Cassie knows mortals, everything will normalize in another few weeks and the world will continue on as usual.

It isn't hard to catch a cab from the station to her apartment and when she tells the cabbie she's moving for school the man doesn't hesitate to strike up a conversation about his youngest daughter who wants to be a surgeon someday. The man is lovely and takes a few nice shortcuts to get her to her apartment building without being trapped in traffic. He even gives her a few pointers on how to avoid getting stuck behind the endless motorcades in the city.

Cassie makes sure to tip him well but doesn't let him help her unload her bags when they get to her new building. They're heavier than a mortal girl her size might be able to handle at one time and she doesn't want to deal with any odd looks or fumbled explanations. She's good at lying but she doesn't like to do it if it can be avoided, and right now it can be.

She waves Benny the cab driver back down the block with a bright smile until the cab turns the corner and then begins to haul her bags inside. A look around the small lobby of the building and sighs. It's a pleasant space with decent lighting and a non-hideous paint job. The floor doesn't even look to horribly scuffed up or grungy and those things alone put it a mile ahead of some of the places she's called home.

There is no elevator.

Of course there isn't.

Because that might actually be a convenient thing for her or something. And the gods know if life were suddenly convenient for Cassie the world might actually stop spinning as everyone knows it and start rotating backwards. Right.

In that case, death to convenience she says.

...

...

But would an elevator really have been too much to ask?

Apparently the universal answer to that question is yes so Cassie resigns herself to the fact that she'll have to make multiple trips. She's already paid first and last month's rent so she picks up her keys from the landlord first. The landlord is an elderly women named Eloise Graff with long, red painted nails. She wears enough perfume to make Cassie want to sneeze and uses a cain Cassie suspects is probably more for poking people with than walking.

"I thought you'd be older," is the first thing she says when Cassie introduces herself and explains why she's there.

Cassie fixes a polite smile on her face and nods. "I get that a lot. Mrs. Graff I just came to pick up my key and move in. If it's an inconvenience to you I can come back later."

Eloise waves away her words and starts rummaging through her desk drawers. Cassie signs her name on the remaining pieces of paperwork the woman presents her with and takes the key she's handed. When she answers Mrs. Graff's question about where she's from the woman sniffs. "Alien's falling out of the sky," she huffs. "If you'd told me that story back in the seventies I'd have told you to lay off the special sauce."

The comment brings a genuine smile to Cassie's face and she lets the woman lead the way back out in to the lobby to pick up her bags. She slings her backpack over her shoulder and grabs one duffle to haul upstairs. To her surprise, Eloise leads the way up, moving slowly and determinedly.

"You're moving out here for school I take it?" Eloise says.

It's more of a question than it is a statement so Cassie treats it that way. "That's right Ma'am," she says. "I'll be starting my last two years of medical school at Georgetown in the fall. I was at Columbia, but after everything..." she paused and shook her head. "It was time to get out of New York."

They arrive at her floor and Eloise pauses to rest against her cain. "And I suppose your parents were alright with you just picking up and moving far far away for the next few years?"

Cassie fits her key in to the lock in the door and pushed it open. Then she turns and makes herself look Eloise Graff in the eyes. She knows, even without being able to see it that her smile is fake again and not genuine. "No parents Ma'am," she says lightly. "It's just me."The door swings open lightly under her palm and Cassie moves to slip inside when she's stopped by a papery hand on her arm.

Mrs. Graff's grip is surprisingly strong. Looking at her knobby fingers and the pronounced blue lines of the woman's veins Cassie is able to diagnose arthritic without much trouble and her powers confirm it with skin to skin contact. "My sons both died in the war," she tells her. Her eyes are hazel green and completely aware. "Vietnam took them both. My husband went from old age seven years ago." Eloise pats her arm twice. "It's just me, too."

With that she turns and moves off back down the stairs. Cassie blinks after her and lets the new information resettle in her head. Then she rolls her shoulders back, resettling the bags she's carrying and opens the door to her new home.

The apartment is nicer than she expected and probably nicer than she deserves for what she's paying. All in all that's a good thing though because while the Legion is paying for her tuition and housing, other critical living expenses like food, books, transportation, and furniture aren't part of the deal. Speaking of expenses she'll need to look for a job if she wants to avoid running out of the savings she managed to put together working in New York and earlier in New Rome. She has inherited money from her mother as well, but she also has hang ups about using it.

It takes her longer to move in completely than it took for her to move out. Getting her bags in takes a matter of minutes but setting it up the way she likes is a different matter. She starts her adjustments by going down to the store on the corner and picking up cleaning supplies for the windows. The blinds had been stuck shut when she arrived and opening them reveals that the glass is grimy. Cassie likes direct light so forty-five minutes, half a bottle of windex, nearly a dozen paper towels, and a risky maneuver with the window ledge later her windows are clean.

Next she assembles her bed to her standards with the blue and white sheets, pillow cases, and duvet she's had since she was thirteen. The cloud-like effect is somewhat cliche for a child of Apollo but the linens were a Christmas present from Chiron and while Cassie isn't all that attached to material things she is a little sentimental. That sentimentality is also the reason that a small stuffed black and white sheepdog her mother bought for her during a short trip in Boston when she was four is placed near her pillow. If that's childish well... Annabeth Chase still sleeps with her childhood teddy bear and she's the toughest person Cassie knows.

The apartment comes with sparse furniture which includes the bed, a night stand, a chest of drawers, a kitchen table, and a closet. She unloads her clothes in to the dresser and hangs what needs to be hung in the closet. Her medical kit goes under the bed like always and she stows her armor with it because she can't figure out a way to conceal it and still have it easily reachable in her closet. The five pairs of shoes she owns go in a neat row below her clothes.

For the moment she just stacks her text books and laptop in the corner of her bedroom. Most demigods don't use laptops but Leo has configured hers specially using celestial bronze and some magic from the Hecate cabin so that the signals won't draw monsters to her location. It's one of the most valuable things that Cassie owns given the amount of school and research she's signed herself up for with her career and education choices.

Cassie's actually incredibly busy over the next few months between moving in and the beginning of school. She registers for classes and gets a job at a coffee house that's roughly half way between her apartment and campus. It's a twenty-four hour joint and Cassie is used to working strange hours so she's able to schedule her shifts around her classes. Plus she makes a great cup of coffee. Proper caffein preparation is right below monster fighting in the demigod handbook.

Buying and assembling her furniture becomes her project in her spare time. A part of her knows she should probably buy IKEA furniture in the cheapest style possible. If a monster trashes her apartment it would be best not to care too much about whatever she has in there. On the other hand, she doesn't actually like much IKEA furniture and she can't figure out how to assemble it correctly anyway. Reading the instructions never helps and somehow Cassie always ends up with at least two extra screws that look important but don't seem to go anywhere.

Over time, she manages to find furniture she likes and can afford, mostly from second-hand stores around the city. Classes start while she's in the process and all in all Cassie is happily busy. It takes a lot to keep her over active mind occupied but she feels like she's doing a pretty good job.

Her classes progress well and Cassie's apartment gradually fills. For the first time in her life she has a couch, coffee table, and reclining arm chair that are mismatched in a homey kind of way. She gets a desk with a lamp and ergonomic chair to do her studying at and a book shelf she fills with everything she's ever read and enjoyed in Greek, Latin, and English. A coffee maker and a toaster are added to her kitchen along with a pressure cooker and most of the time she even has food in her cabinet and refrigerator.

She patrols at least three times a week and kills anything that comes after her with extreme prejudice. There's more monster activity in D.C than there was in New York but Cassie figures that's because the city is farther from the gods. She chooses not to think too much about the fact that monstrous activity is high in the nation's capitol. There's a few too many ironic jokes and sarcastic comments to make with that particular line of thought.

A few times she spots potential demigods and reports them back to Chiron or Lupa depending on weather she thinks they're Greek or Roman. There's a boy in forth grade with a head full of cowlicks and sleepy eyes who she thinks is probably destined for the Hypnos cabin. A girl with a cool aid and sugar addiction is probably headed for the legion. Cassie watches the both of them until they are picked up by for their respective camps. Neither are older than eleven and Cassie is glad that no matter how much they may hate it, the gods seem to be keeping the promise they made to Percy six years ago.

The April after she moves to D.C is slushy and rainy and the cold of the winter is just barely beginning to break. It's about a week short of being a year since she moved in and Cassie feels remarkably settled. She's signed on with Eloise to stay during the summer and in to next year.

Then she meets Jacob Calloway and Carmen Hollow. The meeting happens when she saves the two of them from a nasty snake demon behind a local bodega by shooting it through the eyes. It hisses in death and Cassie winces a little at the swears the snake uses. Sometimes she really hates that an understanding of snakes is one of the areas in which Apollo and Mercury have overlapping spheres of influence.

Jacob is a boy with a Boston accent and grey eyes that look like Annabeth's. He's blonde like Cassie herself and tall for fourteen. Carmen is eight with thick brunette curls and eyes the green shade that belongs to new growth. They're orphans who were thrown together in foster placement and ran away after being attacked by monsters one too many times.

It's too late at night to get in tough with camp and Cassie won't leave them out over night so she invites them back to her apartment. Jacob doesn't really trust her she can tell and Carmen clearly goes where Jacob does. However, both kids are clearly hungry and exhausted and it helps that Cassie entered their lives by saving their assess. Carmen falls asleep on Jacob's shoulder on the bus ride home and the older boy carries her all the way in to the apartment.

Cassie gestures for him to set the small girl on the reclining chair. "Can you cook?" she asks quietly. Jacob regards her for a moment and then shakes his head. It's what Cassie expected so she grabs all the extra pillows and blankets she can find and hands them to him. "The couch pulls out," she explains. "Get it set up and I'll make us some dinner." She shrugs towards where Carmen is sleeping. "Don't wake her up. We'll save her something."

She's not a fantastically inspired cook, but she can follow instructions so she makes a very large pot of macaroni and cheese and preps vegetables for a salad. While she does that she makes a rare phone call to Chiron and explains the situation so they can work out a game plan. When the food is ready she hangs up and dishes out several large portions. That proves to be a good move when Jacob inhales his entire bowl in five minutes flat. His eyes wander over to the serving dish and Cassie barely resists rolling her eyes as she spoons out another portion.

When Cassie's just finishing her salad Carmen wanders in looking blurry eyed and groggy. Cassie doesn't actually have more than two kitchen chairs so she gets up and finishes her dinner leaning against the kitchen counter so the younger girl can sit down. Carmen eats a little bit slower than Jacob had but not by much, and that clarifies what Cassie had suspected about the situation these kids are in. It's a situation she's been in before, and she knows that they're tired, scared, and have been on the run for too damn long.

They need help, and as Cassie watches the two kids huddled together at her slightly wobbly kitchen table she knows that she's going to provide it. _Gods_ they look so freaking young Cassie almost has trouble wrapping her head around the fact that roughly a decade ago she was basically their age. A big part of her wonders what her life might have been like if an adult demigod had found her and helped her. On the one hand she might have been safe a little sooner. On the other, she wouldn't have joined up with Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth, the first real friends she had ever had.

With a little prompting from both herself and Jacob Carmen gets through what Cassie deems to be a decent portion of vegetables after the macaroni. Once that's happened Cassie pulls out a large bag of M&Ms and sets it on the table between them. Once the deserts out of the way she gets going on the explanations and the kids take the idea that their missing parents are Greek gods like champs. After everything they've been through, Cassie's pretty sure any explanation is welcome no matter how strange at the outset. Plus it's easier to absorb the younger you are, and as they say seeing is believing.

Demigods see a whole fucking lot. No matter how old they are.

"For tonight, you two can take turns with the shower," she tells them. "I'll find you both something to sleep in and get your clothes washed for the morning. Then tomorrow we'll get you to camp."

"What happens then?" Carmen asks, green eyes wide.

Cassie leans across the counter and speaks to her honestly. "Then you start training." She looks at them both. "I won't promise you that you'll be safe because I don't want to lie to you. You're demigods which means you might not ever be completely safe in your entire life. But you will be trained. You'll learn how to fight."

Jacob regards her with serious grey eyes and Cassie recognizes the look in them. If Annabeth doesn't have a new little brother in this boy Cassie'll voluntarily take Cerberus to obedience training for a month. "So we won't have to run anymore?" It's a question and a calculation all in one.

"No," Cassie tells him. "No you won't have to run anymore."

The night passes without incident which Cassie can testify to in person because she stays up sitting at the kitchen table holding her bow and facing the door the entire time. Three demigods under one roof sends out enough godly aura to make her edgy about monsters and not one of them is what you would call "minor" in power on their own to begin with. For all the battles they've handled and the monsters they've already faced, Jacob and Carmen are still kids.

Carmen is the age Cassie was when she met Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth in Florida and ran away from foster care. Jacob is the same age Cassie was when she went to the Sea of Monster. However, having grown up that way doesn't mean that Cassie likes that other kids are.

Maybe it's reckless. Maybe it's stupid and impulsive that Cassie cares this much.

But there's a pattern she can see between herself and the two kids passed out in her living room, and Cassie is determined to do all she can to break it.

That's why she stays up all night sitting in an uncomfortable kitchen chair with a weapon in her hand while Jacob and Carmen sleep. It's also while she reserves three train tickets to Grand Central instead of just two and calls in sick to work and class at five AM. Well, technically she invokes the almighty power of the family emergency and really that's not even a lie.

At seven she gets up, all of her joints clicking in harmony. She stows her bow in necklace form and goes in to the living room to wake up her guests. When she had first sent them to bed Carmen had been tucked in to Cassie's own bed and Jacob had been on the pull out couch. Now, Carmen is on the pull out and Jacob is sprawled in a nest of cushions on the floor at the side of the couch like a guard dog.

She wakes them up carefully, wary of sporadic fight/flight reflexes and gets all three of them ready to go. Breakfast is cereal and fruit with hot chocolate for this too young to vote and a large mug of black coffee for her. They then take a cab to the train and Carmen and Jacob look some combination of surprised and happy when she gets on board with them. She takes care to seat herself in the aisle where she can see and defend against anything coming at them and Jacobs storm colored gaze takes in her placement and Cassie knows he recognizes the intent behind it. If she hadn't earned their trust before she thinks she's well on the way. The snacks she provides mid trip might seal the deal.

When they pull in to the station Cassie shepherd the kids off of the train and almost directly in to the Delphi Strawberry Company van parked out front. The parking place is one off the benefits afforded by Mist manipulation from the Hecate cabin. Sure enough, when the door opens Cassie sees Mary Whitely, head counselor for Hecate sprawled across the back row of seats. Meg Caffrey is driving and a slightly ashen faced boy from the Hermes cabin who Cassie thinks is names Toby is gripping a map.

After a few words have been exchanged Cassie waves the van off with a smile. Before the door shuts Cassie leaves Carmen with a package of sunflower seeds and a smile and hands Jacob a piece of paper with her phone number written on it. "If you want to talk call me," she tells him. The boy nods and then Cassie steps back and the van is gone.

The next train back to D.C leaves in just under an hour so Cassie thinks she'll use the time to get herself lunch. It's a good plan in theory. In practice, like many of her plans, it doesn't exactly go that way. She gets attacked by a vampusa outside of a nearby Starbucks and she's tired enough that the beast gets closer to doing damage than it should. Cassie isn't hurt but her shirt gets ripped.

Swearing makes her feel marginally better but after running form the vampusa to get it away from the rest of the cheerleading team it had been traveling with, brushing herself free of the monster dust, and fumbling with her jacket for a while to cover the torn fabric, her time gap is pretty much blown. Pieces of purple hair ribbon and the smell of perfume clings to her even after a hurried sponge down in the bathroom and in the end Cassie barely makes her train. Cassie makes a face as she drops in to her seat. She generally tries not to use stereotypes, after all she falls victim to the "dumb blonde" profile all too often. But gods, her experience has made it really freaking hard not to hate cheerleaders.

Exhaustion weighs heavily on her eyelids but Cassie can't make herself comfortable enough to actually sleep and trying just leaves her with the mother of all neck cramps. Hypnos, god of sleep, apparently hates her and at this point in her life Cassie's pissed off enough gods that she can't be bothered to take the time she would need to figure out why. She thinks about giving studying a shot, then remembers that she doesn't actually have her books and ends up staring blankly out the window instead.

All things considered it's almost a miracle that she manages to get off at her stop and not at some random location in Philadelphia.

A cab ride, a harpy attack, and a probable fractured metatarsal that she's too tired to heal later, and Cassie is back at her apartment regarding the stairs like they've mortally offended her. However, stairs are inanimate objects and as such Cassie can't actually kill this particular set of them. At least she thinks it might be difficult. On the other hand they probably won't put up much of a fight.

Or will they?

It seems unlikely but in the life of a demigod you can never be one hundred percent sure.

Is there even a god of stairs?

Cassie is contemplating calling Annabeth to check. It's four o'clock in the afternoon so chances are good that she'll answer. Besides, it seems like she should maybe check it shooting the stairs will mortally offend any powerful cosmic beings. She's reasonably certain it'd be okay but Cassie thinks it'd be a shame to have to deal with a lifetime of twisted ankles just because she couldn't be bothered to make a phone call.

That's when the door opens behind her. Cassie turns to look because she might be exhausted but she isn't suicidally reckless enough to not check when someone with unfamiliar sounding footsteps is walking up behind her and getting closer every second. Unfortunately the quick movement of the turn drops a solid portion of her weight rather suddenly on her damaged foot and sends a startling amount of pain shooting up her leg.

It dawns on her pretty quickly that with her balance as compromised as it is at the moment she'll either need to sit down or fall over. Sitting down seems like it might have a little more dignity so with that in mind she makes a stunted hop backwards and sits on the bottom step of the possibly hostile staircase. She gives herself a moment to see if the stairs are about to attack and counts to five without incident. For their lack of murderous animation the stairs get an appreciative pat on the bannister.

A shadow falls over her and Cassie looks up in to a pair of ernest blue eyes. "Are you alright Ma'am?" asks a male voice.

Those eyes are really distracting and when Cassie's vision focuses correctly around the blur of tiredness she realizes that they're framed with unfairly long dark lashes and set in a pleasantly handsome structure. If apple pie all-American is your thing. It's never really been Cassie's before, but she thinks she could probably be persuaded.

Also... _Ma'am?_

It takes her a moment to locate her tongue but when she does she finds to her pleasure that she can in fact, remember how to form words. As long as she doesn't have to spell them. If someone asks her to spell right now all bets are off. She thinks for a moment about what she could stay but gives up on that pretty fast and sighs. "Would you believe that my day has been completely fucking insane?"

"Um..." the man rubs a hand against the back of his neck and with some amusement Cassie notes that his ears have turned pink. He looks like he isn't completely sure how to answer. "I don't know. Has it been?" Cassie nods silently and then lets her head fall against the wall. The man shrugs. "Well I'd never accuse a lady of lying."

That gets Cassie to smile a bit. "Nice of you," she comments.

The man ruffles his own blonde hair and smiles back. "I'm sorry I should have introduced myself. I think I just moved in across the hall from you." He extends a hand to her. "I'm Steve."

Suddenly Cassie can place his voice. It had tickled at the back of her mind when he has first spoken but Cassie's mind is operating on very little sleep and not moving at full speed. But she's the daughter of the god of music, in essence sound, and the granddaughter of the god of communication. She recognizes vocal patterns, and this voice was in her ear for hours on end during the Battle of Manhattan.

"I've met you before!" she blurts out. He looks taken aback and Cassie kicks herself. Startling people. Great way to make friends with the new hot neighborhood super soldier. She backtracks quickly. "We'll maybe not like _met you_ met you. I pulled a piece of rebar out of your rib cage at a Shwarma restaurant and then I think I ate some of your chicken kebab."

She extends her hand to shake his. "We didn't really get to names then. I'm Cassie."

Steve's face had cleared as she talked and his hand is warm around hers. "Then I suppose I owe you a thank you. I should have said it then but I guess I was pretty out of it."

He releases her hand and Cassie drops it in to her lap and twists her fingers together. "You had an excuse," she reminds him. "You had three inches of foreign metal in your side. And I was only doing my job."

"You did plenty more than that," he says firmly. "I remember plenty of people in the war- medics who did everything the soldiers did and did it unarmed. You went above and beyond."

Cassie decides that this isn't a good time to tell him that she was armed each and every minute of her medical tour around New York. In fact, she's pretty sure she hasn't so much as tied her shoes unarmed since her tenth birthday. Still, explanations of her weaponry are a long story and she can't tell it without talking about gods and demigods and a million other things that aren't her business to talk about. Instead she meets his eyes and says "I wasn't the only one," and leaves it at that.

She thinks it's enough, and the expression on his face tells her that she's right. The Avengers fought and were given public recognition for it, but Cassie's pretty sure that most of the people who form that public don't actually understand what fighting a battle entails. There's no way that they could. Having aliens invade is traumatic no matter who you are, but unless you actually fight or otherwise see those aliens and the fallout of violence up close, you just don't get the same nightmares.

Too few people get the thanks they deserve for what they do.

Thousands of soldiers, medics, priests, volunteers, and even reporters walk in to war zones and die trying to do something good. Very few of their names were ever recorded and shared with the rest of the world. Hell, Cassie and her friends had fought three wars before being able to vote, and they had done it all completely without the notice of most of the world.

The words that can articulate all of that feel too big and too complicated for Cassie to try to say. Besides, it feels too... personal. Gods it's strange that trying to say something as simple as "thank you" feels as complicated as this.

The silence seems to have gone on for long enough to be awkward and at that moment Cassie realizes that she's blowing the stairs and it's possible that Steve Rogers might want to try to get past but is too polite to tell her to move. "Oh sorry!" she says, gripping the banister and pulling herself to her feet. "Sorry I'll-" Of course, during that brilliant maneuver, the thing that she forgets is that a bone or two in her foot is still broken.

On the bright side Cassie is coordinated enough to catch herself on the closest solid feeling surface and avoid either face planting or falling back on her ass. On the not so bright side, the closest solid feeling surface turns out to be an arm that Rogers throws out to help catch her. Cassie manages to feel both grateful that he bothered and appreciative of the sheer amount of muscle mass suddenly at play beneath her fingers.

"Sorry," Cassie says with a grimace as she shifts her weight to something that resembles balance without putting too much pressure on her broken foot. "Broke a couple toes. All part of my insane day."

There's a small frown throwing a wrinkle between Steve's eyes and in her tiredness Cassie feels a sudden urge to reach out and smooth it with her fingers. A lifetime of curbing ADHD related impulses makes her able to resist, but only just. "Do you break toes... often?"

"Only on insanity days," she tells him. "Thanks for catching me."

He nods gesturing. "Would you like some help on the stairs?" he gestures to them with the arm that Cassie isn't currently using as a support bar. "It's on my way after all."

The offer is made politely and a polite rejection is on the tip of her tongue on principle when Cassie chokes it off. A pulse of dull pain fills her foot and her shoe is starting to feel claustrophobic and tight which probably means her foot is swollen. She's walked off bigger injuries without help before. In fact, she's done heavy combat with a sprained wrist and a broken rib. But right now she really just wants to get to her bed in her apartment and sleep for a minimum of eight hours.

And in complete honesty, she's still not convinced that the stairs won't attack her halfway up. Even if Steve Rogers can't actually help save her from demonic stairs she can at least use him as a human shield so she can get away. Knowing what she knows about him, that seems like the kind of play he might actually be able to get behind.

She finds herself nodding in agreement. "Yeah, thank you. I'll just keep borrowing your arm until we get up to our floor?"

"Sounds like a plan," he agrees and pivots so that they're both facing the bottom step. They begin to hobble up the steps and Cassie mostly watches her feet so that she doesn't trip and pull them both down. She's not normally uncoordinated, but an unplanned fall doesn't feel too far from the norm that day. "Do you need to stop for a minute?" he asks when they've gone two flights in silence.

Cassie shakes herself out of the dreamy thought stream she had been floating in. "What? Oh no I'm good it's just..." she trails off, glancing up at him and then figures she might as well say screw it. "If I trip I'm not going to crash us both in to the floor am I?"

"Uh, no," Steve answers as they start on the next flight of stairs. "My coordination is a little better than normal. I'm hard to knock over by accident. You would probably need to be trying."

That turns over in Cassie's mind. Most demigods had pretty good coordination by default but they also spent between three years and a decade with Chiron or Lupa training to fine tune it. She wonders what it would be like to essentially go to sleep and then wake up with your entire center of gravity completely altered and your sense of balance forever changed. "Huh," she says. "Helpful."

He shrugs one shoulder which Cassie thinks is fairly considerate given that shrugging both might have jolted her sideways given that one of his arms is bearing a fairly large percentage of her body weight. Well, he's Captain America. Super-consideration might have been part of the cocktail. "It can be," he says. He doesn't expand on that any further and Cassie doesn't feel like pushing. She's not even sure she'd know _how_ to push if she wanted to.

Moving slowly but steadily they eventually make it up to the floor where they now both live. By the time they make it to her door Cassie's entire foot feels like it's puffed up to twice it's normal size and she's kind of wishing she'd just bitten the bullet of extra exhaustion and used magic to repair the breaks. Well, hindsight is always twenty-twenty and Cassie has considerably better vision than most people.

Steve steps away as Cassie displaces her weight to her doorframe. "Thanks again for all the help," she tells him, looking up in to his face.

"It was no problem," he says. His hands are in the pocket of his tan leather jacket and he looks like he isn't sure weather he should keep talking or politely excuse himself from the entire conversation. "I'd never leave a dame in trouble."

Cassie pulls a face without thinking about it and quickly moves to apologize. "Sorry," she says. "It's just no one says dame anymore. Not that you don't have a good excuse not to know that. As excuses go yours is pretty unasailable. In this situation 'girl' is more colloquial and 'person' is best unless you're sure the girl your talking to isn't twitchy about feminism and the english language."

That little wrinkle reappears between Steve's eyes and the look on his face is an adorable mix of concerned and confused. "Is that likely to be a problem?"

She shrugs. "Probably not with most people. But this is D.C so some people might be a little more politically sensitive than others."

Steve's shoulders slump and suddenly he looks younger, less like a super soldier, and more like regular guy. He also looks about as tired as Cassie feels. "Sometimes it really hits me all at once how much the world has changed."

He looks so... lost in that moment that Cassie reacts without thinking and reaches out, placing a hand against his elbow. "Hey," she says as gently as she can manage. "If it makes you feel any better, you aren't the only one that feels that way. Six years or sixty-five, almost everyone feels like the world's changing too fast. And let me tell you, it absolutely scares us all shitless. I'm serious. Most of us operate on a low level of panic every single day because we've got a tiny voice screaming in the back of our minds that the entire world is shifting and there's nothing we can do about it. I don't know for sure because I'm not you, but at least in this situation, I think the only difference between us and you is that we've had a little bit more time to get used to it."

For a long moment after she's finished speaking, Cassie thinks it's possible that she's said the absolute worst thing she could have. Then Steve smiles. It's small and hard to make out, but it's there, and it changes his entire face. "It was good to meet you- again." he says. He takes a half a step back and pulls a key out of his pocket to open his front door as Cassie nods in agreement. At the last moment as he's about to step through he turns back to her and inclines his head. "Good night Miss Cassie."

The adage is old fashioned and kind of lovely and makes Cassie smile. To her own shock she feels some of her blood rush up and color her cheeks. She reaches in to her bag to retrieve her key and gets it turned in the lock without looking down at it. Oh yeah, that's godly coordination right there. "Good night Steve," she calls. Then she pulls open her own door and ducks inside, shutting and locking it behind her.

It takes her some time to get ready for bed because moving around is harder than it normally is. She showers and puts on her pajamas of sweatpants and an old tee shirt and brushed her teeth sitting on the edge of her bathtub, mulling over the events of the day in her head. Cassie doesn't know about other people, but she always finds she gets a lot of thinking done while brushing her teeth.

Is it really possible that Freaking Captain America is now her next door neighbor? It doesn't seem like it, but at the same time stranger things have happened in her life. She's not sure weather or not that thought is depressing. She decides not to think about it for now and instead turns her focus to deciding between weather she should risk the liver damage of swallowing a handful of Advil, or risk the more godly damage of taking a sip of nectar.

She settles on the handful of Advil and swallows it with a mouthful of water straight from the sink. Liver damage will kill her slowly and knowing Cassie's life some sort of monster will probably eat her before that's a concern. Nectar on the other hand, might actually be able to melt her alive.

Then limps her way in to the kitchen for an ice pack. Upon arriving at her freezer she realizes that she doesn't actually have a real ice pack. What she does have is a large bag of frozen corn, so that'll have to do. She double wraps the bag first in plastic, and then in a dish towel. There's a better than fifty percent chance that she'll fall asleep with the pack on her foot before it melts enough for her to return it to the ice drawer. She'd rather not wake up to a pool of cold water.

Finally she collapses on to her mattress and flops on her pillows. She grabs one and shoves it under her foot and positions her bag of cold corn so that it can numb her foot. That'll have to be enough until she wakes up and can think clearly.

She's got a lot of things she'll have to figure out tomorrow morning. One of them being her new neighbor situation. Steve Rogers actually seems like a nice guy, but Cassie isn't naive enough to believe that the U.S government is just letting Captain America live in some random apartment building in D.C without people (read: agents) watching him. And for a girl whose existence requires a certain amount of secrecy that's a problem.

That's how she falls asleep. Icing her foot and wondering what bizarre godly manipulation of fate ended up with her in this position where she's trying to keep a low profile and Captain America is living across the hall. She's not good enough at math and doesn't have enough background information to work out what the odds were of this happening, but she has a strong inclination that they must be pretty astronomical.

Cassie's never spent time chatting with the fates, but the last thought that goes through her mind before she falls asleep is to question weather or not this might be their version of attempting to have a sense of humor.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I got some great support so I thought I'd give a second chapter a shot. If you guys like it, I have a rough idea for a third chapter. Did you like Jacob and Carmen? I thought I might try to do some in Steve's perspective to show what Cassie is like from the outside and not inside her head. Besides I think it might be interesting to try to get inside the mind of the Good Captain Rogers. If I try writing that way and it doesn't work I'll shift back to Cassie. Are you guys liking the story so far? Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxxoxoooxxxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Hahahahahahhahahaha... No.**

Having Captain America living across the hall presents a wide assortment of new complications for Cassie to deal with. And if there's one girl on the planet who doesn't need new complications in her life it's her. As usual, the universe doesn't really care.

For one thing there's an uptick in traffic on the street. Black SUVs have never been so popular on their street. Which, by the way, seriously? The government wasn't even going to _try_ dodging the cliche? Evidently not.

That doesn't actually bother her too much. Cassie doesn't have a car despite having gotten her license at sixteen. Being able to legally drive helped on quests involving cross country travel which all of them seemed to. Just once Cassie would have liked to have a quest that started at camp and ended somewhere in New Jersey. A quest she could drive to, complete, and drive back all in the same day. Unfortunately, all of the quests she'd ever been involved in had required hauling ass from one cost to the other on ridiculous time constraints.

Anyway, not having a car meant that Cassie didn't have to worry about traffic or parking. If D.C traffic hadn't been invented by a god who was feeling sadistic on the day of invention Cassie doesn't know what was. The presidential motorcade that seems to clog the streets constantly might also be a good contender. The point is Cassie doesn't mind the SHIELD cars so much.

What Cassie minds is the things that those cars represent. Cars needed people, or agents, to drive them. Agents did surveillance and took pictures or video of the people they were supposed to be watching. Cassie already lived in one of the most highly photographed cities in the continental United States. Living in a building that had extra surveillance on it wasn't good.

Living with agents is a particularly tricky concept when the agency in question work for had a building interest in enhanced individuals. Healing powers, photokinesis, audiokinesis, perfect aim, supernatural eye sight, augmented speed, and higher than average strength weren't exactly typical. Cassie isn't sure what kind of scale or profile or whatever is being used to determine what qualifies as "enhanced" but she's pretty sure being three quarters Greek and Roman god would put her on whatever list might exist.

That's not a list she's interested in ever being on. That would require her to give some kind of explanation for her abilities and of her existence. Doing that would mean explaining demigods in general.

Yeah... No thank you. Have a nice day.

There are agents outside pretty often. Cassie maps out their rotations and shifts in her head. She varies her schedule some but not enough to look suspicious. Being random on purpose to a minimal degree is complicated enough to make her head hurt. She cases the area more often and goes further away on her patrol nights.

Always she makes sure that she can watch the agents outside. There's some irony there or something, watching the watchers while they watch her. Well okay, they aren't technically there to watch her, but the end result is the same.

A new woman moves in on the floor above where Cassie and Steve live nearly a month after Steve shows up. She has blonde hair and brown eyes and introduces herself as Kate, a nurse working at GW Hospital. Contrary to popular belief, some demigods do have self-control and Cassie happens to be one of them. It's this self-control that keeps Cassie from verbally calling bullshit.

For one thing Cassie knows what nursing shifts are like and she keeps an eye on her neighbors which means she knows that "Kate's" schedule can't possibly be right for the job she claims to have. For another, Cassie knows both what nurses are paid and how much rent costs in the building they live in. Those two figures don't match. Cassie also knows that nurses have hands chapped and shredded like nothing else because of all of the washing they did. "Kate's" hand when Cassie shakes it is smooth with practical, short fingernails.

All in all, there is no way that "Kate" is actually a nurse. The timing of her moving in and the details she gives are too incongruous. So she's either a SHIELD agent, in witness protection, or a fellow on the run. It's theoretically possible that the woman is some combination of all three but Cassie's money is on her being an agent. Therefore she is not a nurse, and most likely not named Kate.

Avoiding the woman who is not named Kate and not a nurse requires some particular timing on Cassie's part. That's made a little easier to work out given that she's pretty sure the other woman is trying to avoid her to. The agent is living in their building to watch Captain America not Cassie, and Cassie is more than happy to keep life that way. Still, she avoids "Not Nurse Kate" in the hopes of keeping any government profile on her to a minimum.

Cassie also has to start being careful about smaller things, like doing her laundry. Explaining why most of her dirty clothes have blood and dirt on them isn't something Cassie thinks she can do believably more than once or twice. There's being clumsy and then there's straight up unbelievable and that territory isn't as far away as some people might think. She briefly contemplates buying a washer and dryer for her apartment but that kind of appliance is expensive and Cassie's job, scholarship, and stipend don't quite cover that kind of purchase.

So, Cassie starts doing her laundry late at night. It's inconvenient, but it's not like two AM laundry can really screw up her sleep schedule. At this point in her life, Cassie doesn't have a sleep schedule to begin with, so screwing it up would be kind of impossible. She explains it to one of her elderly neighbors by saying it's the only time she has to use the washing machine between classes and her job. Those poor, completely normal people probably think she works for some kind of evil slave driver.

Basically, being Captain America's neighbor pretty much sucks. It makes her have to completely alter her schedule to avoid being detected as non-human by the government. All in all it's a pain in her ass, but moving would be way more of a hassle and Cassie only has a year left before she's done with medical school and can go to work at a hospital far far away.

On the other hand, having Steve Rogers as her next door neighbor is actually really nice. Being from the forties and a general all around good guy makes Steve pretty much her number one pick for neighbor of the year.

He's quiet. There's no loud music and he doesn't throw any parties. Of course, everyone he might want to have a party with is probably either dead or in their nineties. Cassie doesn't have much of a sample to pull from but large parties seem statistically unlikely from a crowd of nonagenarians. Mortal ones anyway, Cassie knows people millennia old who still throw a great party. Of course, those people are gods, nymphs, and titans, etc.

Steve's nice in other ways too. The morning after he first moves in, he knocks on Cassie's door at eight thirty in the morning looking hesitant. In fact, Cassie gets the impression that if she hadn't opened the door as quickly as she had after the quiet knock she had heard while she was in the kitchen, he might have just walked away.

Her foot hasn't healed yet which on one level sucks because it seriously hurts despite the Advil and ice she's used on it. The fact that it's still broken is however, good on a different level because broken bones just don't heal overnight if you're a regular human being. Which is what Cassie's aiming to be in the eyes of everyone who isn't in the know about demigods and her particular flavor of crazy. So in the end it's good that Cassie had decided not to use the light coming in through the window to heal until after her morning coffee.

"Oh," she says. She's a little surprised. Honestly she hadn't expected to see her new neighbor again for a very long time. The last guy who had lived across the hall from her hadn't even introduced himself when Cassie moved in. "Hi. Good morning."

"Good morning," he replies. His hands are in his pockets, but he's standing up straight and his shoulders are set, though relaxed. It's a barely more relaxed version of standing at ease the way the military does and Cassie recognizes the base stance from her time with the legion. She thinks it's possible that Steve doesn't know any other way to carry himself. "I was uh..."

He goes a little pink around his ears as Cassie waits for him to finish his thought. "I was wondering if you needed any help this morning. With your foot and all," he gestures to where Cassie's toes are bare against the hard wood floor. She follows his line of sight and winces. The skin is kind of puffy and the bruising on it has turned a fun rainbow of nasty bluish purple colors tinged with yellow and green.

Cassie realizes that he's still waiting for an answer and Steve shifts uncomfortably. "I didn't mean to intrude on your morning," he says hurriedly. "It just- It seemed like I should offer."

"You're not intruding," Cassie tells him. She tries to shift her weight as she considers but when the bones in her toes start protesting she changes her mind. She quickly scans her mental itinerary. "I was planning on going to the grocery store in a little bit," she says. "A little help going back down the stairs would be nice if you're willing."

The truth is Cassie had been planning to just heal her foot and do her shopping unaided, but Steve's entire expression shifts and clears with her words. Having a job to do, having something be expected from him changes his very being. The effect is like catching a beam of sunshine with a magnifying glass. It's like he's pushed away a weight, or heavy thought in favor of knowing that there is something, however small that he needs to do.

"Of course," he says seriously. Steve then seems to notice that she's wearing leggings and a short sleeved shirt. Her hair is probably a mess too. In short, she doesn't look exactly ready to go anywhere. "Should I come back later? An hour from now?"

Cassie nods. "That might be best. I'm not quite ready to go yet." She pulls her phone from where she'd been storing it in her bras to check the time before stopping to consider the fact that Steve Rogers from the nineteen forties might not know quite how to handle that mentally. Whatever. If history is to be believed the man spent nearly a year on a USO tour full of showgirls and then had an epic romance in the middle of a war. Cassie will bet he's seen more than a bras before. "Want to come back at nine?"

Steve nods and then ducks away back across the hall.

Cassie goes back in to her apartment and takes a quick shower. She changes in to clothes more appropriate for interacting with the general public and tapes together the toes closest to her broken bones. When that's done she has enough time to bring the water back to boiling and make a pot of coffee before Steve knocks on her door again. She pours the coffee in to a travel mug, and then on a whim fills a second one.

She opens the door gingerly using her elbows. "Hi," she greets him. Cassie holds out one of the mugs. "I thought coffee was the least I could do for you acting as a human crutch."

Politeness seems to compel Steve to take the mug regardless of weather or not he actually wants it. He smiles in thanks and they go down the stairs together. They don't really talk because Cassie is focusing on not tripping and Steve seems okay with the silence.

To her surprise he doesn't leave her when they get to the bottom of the stairs and instead offers to help her get to and from the store if she shows him where it is. Cassie figures he's new to the neighborhood so he must not know where things are. He also doesn't seem likely to just look up where to find groceries online so she agrees to the deal.

Steve is unobtrusive as she shops and just leaves her to it as she limps around the store. He does some shopping himself and the store is big enough that they don't run in to each other much. By the time Cassie's done she finds Steve staring blankly at a shelf that seems to be filled with ice cream toppers. "What's Magic Shell?" he asks.

Cassie leans closer to look at the bottle he's talking about. "It's like chocolate sauce," she says. "You put it on ice cream and then it hardens. It kind of melts in your mouth when you eat it. It's good." She throws a bottle of the stuff in to her own cart and then holds another out to him. "You should try some."

Looking somewhat unsure, Steve takes the bottle from her and adds it to his shopping cart. It's considerably more full than Cassie's and she wonders if one of the effects of the serum jacked up his metabolism. Biologically that would probably explain his healing. It seems rude to ask about so instead she turns to the freezer near by and pulls out a tub of mint chip ice cream.

"Do you have a type of ice cream you like?" she asks.

In the end, he settles on a tub of coffee ice cream and the two of them pay and leave. Steve insists on carrying everything back to their building and Cassie protests but doesn't fight him on it. She knows that there are some battles you can't win, and stopping Captain America from being chivalrous feels like one of them. He helps her back up the stairs again and leaves her at her door.

"I'm excited about the ice cream," is his parting comment.

Cassie's foot is healed by that afternoon but Steve still helps her out a couple more times in the two or three weeks that follow, and Cassie thanks him with coffee and by showing him some of the shops around the neighborhood. Once or twice he even gets coffee where she works. They chat about things that don't matter when they pass in the hallways. In general they're friendly, maybe almost friends and Cassie thinks it's probable that he doesn't have many of those.

Time passes in days first, and then weeks, followed by months. She doesn't exactly see Steve often. Her schedule is almost a deliberate effort to defy the definition of sanity and Steve is sometimes gone for whole weeks at a time on missions.

They never exchange phone numbers. For Cassie it's dangerous to use the phone too much no matter how safe Leo might have made it and Steve can't seem to keep a phone for more than a few days without breaking it somehow. Apparently super strength is rough on technology.

Once Cassie shows him how to reset the wifi router in his apartment. She gets help from Travis Stoll over text, but in the end the internet at his place his working. Besides, it makes her not feel guilty when she asks him for help fixing her garbage disposal when it breaks down a week later. He's unfamiliar with the set up but seems to appreciate that she asks. He leaves for a while and comes back with tools and an instruction booklet. Eventually the sink is fixed and the next time Steve comes in to the diner she gives him a free bear claw.

They're neighborly and friendly Cassie settles in to her new equilibrium as well as she can. Though settling in isn't something Cassie is particularly good at. Normally when she gets settled things start going wrong. As improbable as it seems though, that doesn't seem to be happening this time.

In many ways Cassie's life continues on as normal. Her normal anyway. Which in terms of actual normality is probably still strange to a wide portion of the general populous.

Either way, Cassie finishes her third year of medical school with good grades. She gets a second job with flexible hours over the summer to make some extra money. A few times she gets together with her friends at both camps for both missions and social occasions and it's nice to see that she's not the only one whose working on building a normal life.

Leo and Calypso have opened their cafe/autoshop and seem to be doing pretty good business. Piper is in law school in New Rome and Rachel is working on a business degree much to the delight of her father. They plan to open an architecture firm with Annabeth who's working in San Francisco. Of course, Percy is staying in the city with her and working as a diver collecting water and fish samples for local scientists. It's a convenient job when you can breath underwater.

Jason is still doing his work in constructing and maintaining shrines at both camps. It keeps him busy and lets him spend time with Piper for more than half the year. Hazel is starting college and Frank and Reyna are attending part time when they aren't carrying out their duties as praetors.

Cassie's own little brother Will is following in her footsteps and getting ready to take the MCATS and apply for medical school. She gives him a few tips but Will doesn't really need them, and Cassie's incredibly proud. He and Nico are still together and Nico is as darkly clothed and reserved as ever. On closer inspection though, Nico's a bit more friendly and seems happy to be majoring in history with a minor in Italian.

They all meet up at camp for the fourth of July fireworks. While she's there Cassie makes sure to check up on both Jacob and Carmen. It turns out that she was right in her assumptions of their godly parentage. Despite being in different cabins, the two seem to have stayed close and they both seem to be adjusting as well as can be expected from demigods who've gone through what they have.

She goes in to Manhattan again in the middle of August for Percy's twenty-third birthday. They all eat blue chocolate cake with blue frosting and have fun and it's almost like being normal. It's a celebration in the best way because they're all still alive and none of them expected to be. Rosie's getting bigger and Percy is a wonderful big brother. Eventually, he might even get the chance to be a good dad and Cassie can see that Annabeth is thinking the same thing.

The next school year starts and it's Cassie's last year of medical school. They do procedures on cadavers a few times and Cassie understands the technical proceedings involved but she isn't wild on the process. She prefers her patients alive and kicking. Well okay not kicking. If they were kicking they probably wouldn't be her patients. Regardless the classes are interesting.

As a result of all of the work and studying she has to do to pass her end of year, end of medical school exams Cassie spends almost all of her free time studying. She cuts back her patrols some when the ouster activity levels seem low. Her sleep reserves are pretty dangerously low for a month or two. When she almost falls asleep studying in the sun on a park bench she concludes that it might be time to rework her mental schedule to include a bit more time being unconscious.

It's a good move and Cassie also makes sure she spends a little more time outside in the sun with her books. Her father might not be the most involved parent, but sunshine always helps her focus. The adjustments make her feel healthier and stronger and life's pretty good by Cassie's standards until November when the sun starts hiding and winter in Washington D.C comes knocking.

Winters in Washington D.C are, to put it gently, kind of gross. They aren't pretty, snowy white winters for the most part. Instead, they're slushy and wet and grey. Winters in Washington are some of the only factors that can make Cassie wish even briefly that she had stayed to do medical school in New Rome.

At least she's not the only one working crazy hours and sacrificing sleep for a higher goal as they approached the holiday season. Steve seems to be getting busier and busier as the months pass. He's hardly ever actually in his apartment and while Cassie appreciates the reprieve from the agents circling outside, she kind of misses the brief conversations she used to have with Steve as they passed in the hallways.

Cassie doesn't have any thanksgiving plans. Thanksgiving plans are really only possible to make when you have family or close friends who celebrate the holiday and live nearby. Cassie technically happens to have neither. Her friends all have family of their own that they see over the holidays and Cassie doesn't really want to crash in on any of them, despite the fact that they do offer and insist she won't intrude. Crashing a family occasion is still crashing a family occasion.

Will offers to let her come stay with him and his mom and Cassie seriously considers it. From what she knows about Will's mom the woman sounds nice. She's an indie rock singer and the few times they've met she's been pleasant. Still, Cassie's not exactly jazzed about the idea of sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and trying to explain herself.

 _Hi. I'm your son's sister through his godly father. Sometimes monsters pop up and try to kill us. And hey! The odds of that happening only get more likely when more than one of us is in the same place! Great dinner! Pass the yams..._

That kind of seems like it might kill the conversation a little. Therefore the idea of that dinner is a bit of a non-starter. She tells Will thank you but says she's got too much studying to do, which technically isn't even a lie. It'll be a quiet holiday with just her and her lecture notes.

The amount of studying she does is kind of enormous really, and she doesn't even have to do quite as much as some of her classmates because of her abilities. She can accurately diagnose any kind of medical problem with a touch and in theory heal it just as easily. She knows the exact structure of the human body, what can go wrong, and how they repair.

What she can't do by herself is explain medical treatments on paper or answer test questions about it. For that she has to study the material. Besides, if she wants to be a doctor for patients who aren't demigods or anything other than regular mortals she has to be able to successfully practice mortal medicine.

The Tuesday night (possibly Wednesday morning) before Thanksgiving she literally runs straight in to Steve as she's going in to the building and he's leaving. It feels a lot like walking in to a cement wall. And yes, she's speaking from experience on that comparison. Thankfully Cassie has generally good reflexes and Steve reaches out to help keep her upright as she bounces off of his chest.

Steve's hands are warm on her shoulders and there's a slight tug as one of his fingers catches a bit on a curl of her blonde hair where a few locks of it have escaped her bun. Cassie's been meaning to get a haircut but hasn't had time to get one lately. When free her hair hangs to almost below the end of her ribcage and if she doesn't at least trim it soon the weight will start to hurt her neck.

"Sorry," Steve says as he sets her back with a deliberate gentleness. "That was my fault." He manages a smile but it doesn't quite reach his eyes. It's an expression of politeness not happiness. His large blue eyes seem tired and sad. That's not different from normal though. Steve looks a little bit sad most of the time. His eyes are where he carries the weight of being a man out of time. Tonight, that weight seems to be etched all over his face.

Cassie waves off his apology. "No. You were fine. I was walking preoccupied." Generally, Cassie is one of those people who is completely capable of both walking, talking, and thinking all at the same time. However, at the moment she's less than a month from her midterm exams and roughly that same amount of time from the winter solstice which traditionally is when things start going very badly wrong for demigods the world over.

In theory, Cassie's old enough to have done her service and not worry anymore. Her Camp Half Blood necklace has fifteen beads, and her arm is stamped with bars representing seven years of service in the Roman Legion. She could be out and done, only killing the monsters who come after her and sometimes ferrying wayward demigod children to safety. In practice though, Cassie is able, strong, healthy, and powerful, and the world won't stop going crazy just because Cassie is tired of trying to fix it.

So, no matter how tired she is, Cassie doesn't stop.

She does her homework. She fights and trains. During her time off she checks in with Chiron and Lupa and Rachel and Ella. Sometimes she saves the world with help from her other friends. And, most crucially, Cassie makes sure she organizes her schedule so that she's never doing anything important during auspicious times such as equinoxes, solstices, and godly birthdays.

"Were you thinking about your Thanksgiving plans?" Steve asks.

Cassie sighs. "Not much to think about really." Steve's eyebrows go up and Cassie realizes that that statement might actually require some kind of background information. "It's just always seemed like kind of an odd holiday to me," she explains. "Like 'lets all get together and eat pie because a couple of centuries ago our ancestors accidentally wiped out an indigenous people with smallpox'. It's never really seamed like solid basis for a family party."

Steve's starting to smile a little. "Well hey, I'm Irish. My ancestors imigrated."

"Mine too," Cassie tells him. "Germany, Italy, and Greece." It's true, her great grandparents had moved to the United States from Germany. Her grandmother just so happened to fall for the Roman god Mercury, an affair that had produced her mother who had then had a thing with the Greek god Apollo and now Cassie exists with a great big complicated and generally hard to explain gene pool.

He cocks his head in consideration. "And yet you're blonde." She feels a gentle pressure as one of the locks of hair trapped below Steve's hands is twisted around one of his fingers. The pressure releases a moment later as he shifts his weight back and a little away from her.

"My last name is Morgenstern," she informs him. "The German blood is strong here. Besides, there are blonde residents along the Aegean. They just aren't the stereotype." She doesn't mention that both of the gods in her gene pool who contribute the Greek and Roman aspects are blonde haired and blue eyed most of the time. What Cassie would grow up looking like had never been something she had to ponder all that much.

Steve's smile had grown progressively as she talked and now it's big enough that Cassie can say definitively that it exists. "If you'd grown up where I had no one would have known which neighborhood to put you in. You might have been able to pick."

"If I'd grown up where you had I'd have been mocked and excluded from multiple ethnic groups and then shunned for being a child born out of wedlock to a woman with possible nazi affiliations for being half German and half Italian. Then I'd have been further excluded for being orphaned at age eight," she says practically. These aren't emotional things, just the facts of her existence, and that's how she tells them. Factually.

Unfortunately, that seems to have been just a little too factual for the mood they had been aiming for because Steve's smile falls away. "I'm sorry," he says seriously. The words are completely sincere and Cassie remembers a long ago portion of a history book she had read with Chiron that had mentioned that Steve Rogers had grown up poor and Irish with a single mother in the 1910s when the Irish hadn't been a popular ethnic group.

For that reason, Cassie doesn't blow past the comment like she might with someone else. Not many people are within their rights to apologize for how she grew up and truly mean it. She figures Steve might be one of the few. So instead she just nods. "Yeah. So, not really a fan of national Turkey Day. Besides I'm not a football fan, and I'm pretty sure that's the only other upside of the holiday if you don't have family and or like pie."

Steve pulls a face. "I prefer baseball actually."

Cassie throws him a smile in response. "I hear it's the American pass time."

"Stark told me I should watch the movie Bulldurham," Steve says conversationally. She stares at him for a moment, face blank. Then she starts laughing. "Ah," he says in reaction, rubbing the back of his neck. "I take it that might have been a joke?"

She chokes off her laugh by deliberately biting the inside of her cheek. "No," she says, a few more giggles escaping before she can reign them in. "No it's a good movie. Kevin Costner and Susan Surandan are both in and they're good actors. There's just kind of a lot of sex in it." She giggles a little more at the look on Steve's face. "Maybe start with Field of Dreams."

Steve pulls a notebook out of the pocket of his sweatpants and flips through a couple pages. "Do you have a pen?" he asks. The only one that Cassie has is the one she's using to hold up her bun but she pulls it out anyway and hands it over. Her hair spills as a warm weight down her back and she flicks a few wayward strands behind her shoulders. She notices that Steve's eyes track the movement and Cassie can see him swallow deliberately before he turns his attention back to his notebook. He crosses something out and makes a quick note. He hands her pen back after clicking it shut. "Thanks."

"No problem," Cassie says, sticking the pen in her pocket and then Steve slips sideways and lets her past him in to the building. "What about you?" she asks, durning to face him again once she's though the door. "Do you have Thanksgiving plans?"

Suddenly Steve's smile flashes back across his face like a lightning strike. "Oh yeah," he says. "Classified ones in a country I don't think existed when I was a kid."

Cassie smiles back at him. "Fun," she says. "Well, if you come back at the beginning of Advent needing to be patched up you know where to find me."

"So your problems with Thanksgiving don't extend to Christmas?" Steve asks.

Without being able to see it Cassie knows that her smile has turned a little bit more devilish. Sometimes the Mercury in her blood becomes more obvious, particularly when she's having fun with something. "Hell no," she says. "I'm one hundred percent in favor of presents, candy, and Paganism." With that she turns and takes the stairs at a jog, but Captain America leaves for his Thanksgiving mission in parts unknown with a smile on his face and Cassie thinks that that might just count as her patriotic service for the calendar year.

The first day of Advent dawns with no supersoldiers gracing her hallway, injured or otherwise, but she does notice a government type following her down the street as she makes her way back from the grocery store. She spots them because every other person on the street is reasonably dressed for the weather in down coats and snow boots. The man trailing her is in a suite jacket and loafers with an earwig and a shaved head. Blending in well he is not.

Cassie thinks about shaking him deliberately but happens to know that a normal person wouldn't know how to do something like that. Instead she walks up to her apartment to put away her groceries and then makes her way back downstairs. Once she's back outside she deliberates for a moment before picking the primary black van that's been circling the neighborhood for the last few months and walking up to it.

She knocks twice on the window and waits as the bullet proof glass is rolled down. The agent who had been following her is the one in the passenger seat and another who might be his twin is sitting on the driver's side cradling a large cup of coffee like it's his first born son. And Cassie is Greek. First born sons are a freaking big deal. "Yes?" the agent says.

"You've never followed me before," Cassie says. She figures a preamble is pointless for this conversation. "Do you want something?"

The agent looks confused. "What-"

Cassie rolls her eyes. "I'm a city girl. I know when I'm being followed around. Now, people in black vans have been living here since Captain Rogers became my neighbor. But you've never followed me while I shop before. So, I'm asking, do you want something?"

The agents look at each other and then shrug simultaneously. The agent who had followed her pulls a slightly crumpled looking envelope out of his pocket and hands it to her through the window. "Captain Rogers' assignment is going longer than expected," he says, sounding formal and agent-like. "He asked that this be delivered to you."

She takes the envelope. "Merry Christmas early gentlemen."

The envelope stays in her pocket unopened until she's taken off her coat and shoes and sitting at the end of her bed with the heat on and blasting. Inside is less of a letter and more of a note, written in the neat cursive of a man educated in a 1930s Catholic school on a piece of paper that looks like it was torn out of Steve's journal. She wonders where and when exactly he had the opportunity to write it if he's carrying out a mission in parts unknown.

The note is simple. No more than a few sentences and reads:

 _Miss Cassie Morgenstern,_

 _Thanksgiving day is an arbitrary date. F.D.R changed it in '39 so more people would shop before Christmas. He thought it would help the depression. It was in the papers. They called it 'Franksgiving'. I remember people were angry about it. Enjoy your Advent._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Captain Steve Rogers._

Cassie pins the note to her cork board above her desk and looks at it once in a while as she studies for her exams and passes them on December 9th. She gets until the fifteenth to relax and is then called in for the requisite time sensitive mission that has to be completed before the 21st lest the world be obliterated in a storm of mythological power. This year, it involves re-killing Caligula.

She gets to shoot him in the throat and it's viscerally satisfying in a way that a more psychologically healthy person might find questionable but none of Cassie's friends seem to mind given that they all help. Frank and Annabeth help coordinate the whole thing. Percy half-drowns the former emperor using a garden hose and Jason electrocutes him after he's soaked. Piper and Hazel use their combined powers to keep away the powers he had tried to summon.

All in all it's not the hardest thing they've ever done together. In fact, it's not even all that life threateningly difficult in the end. They grab hot cocoa and chat for a bit before they all part ways and everyone is safe and happy at home by the morning of the 22nd.

Steve shows up in the lobby on the same morning looking exhausted and carrying an army duffle bag. They have a brief discussion of their Christmas plans. Something flickers behind Steve's eyes when he says he's visiting a friend the next evening for an early celebration and then going to Manhattan for a party at the Avengers Tower. Cassie doesn't bring up the flicker or push about it because it's almost the holidays and for once everyone she cares about is alive and whole at this point in the year so she's happy and feeling the holiday spirit.

"I'll be in Manhattan too," she says. "The mother of a friend of mine throws a party and invites al of his misfit friends with nowhere to go for Christmas and Christmas Eve. They take the idea of a blue Christmas literally so it's always worth some pictures."

He looks confused. "Blue Christmas?"

The poor man is obviously tired and somewhat befuddled so Cassie takes pity on him. "It's a song," she explains. "If you make it to a store at some point in the next week or two you'll probably hear it. But that's not really the point." Steve isn't really looking less confused so Cassie continues. "My friend's family has a thing about blue food. Well, technically he and his mom do and his stepdad humors them." Yet more proof in Cassie's opinion that Paul possesses patience on a level unknown to mortals and immortals alike. "Anyway, they end up having a lot of blue things. Ornaments, tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbons, bells, pancakes, sugar cookies, cakes, ice cream, pretty much you name it."

The absurdity of the idea seems to appeal to Steve even if he is exhausted and possibly only hearing every third word she's saying. "That sound like it would be fun," he agrees. They start to go their separate ways but then he stops. "The other food isn't blue too is it? Blue turkey and mashed potatoes seem like they might be off putting."

"To my knowledge Sally Jackson has never in her life entertained the idea of serving blue poultry," Cassie reports. "Though I think one year there were blue eggs at breakfast. I've heard of people doing green ones before though so I guess blue isn't really that weird."

Steve looks confused all over again. "Green eggs? Doesn't that mean they've gone bad?"

Cassie grins. "When it's accidental yes. When it's on purpose it's normally in tribute to a man named Doctor Seus. He wrote kids books with weird rhymes and bright colors. You see them a lot when you learn to read." To be fair Cassie hadn't. _The Lorax_ didn't have a latin translation, but Cassie appreciates the books anyway.

After her explanation Steve nods and adds a notation to his journal and then looks up at her as he lifts his back and heads back to his apartment. "You said you're taking the train up on Christmas Eve?" Cassie makes an affirmative noise and he nods at her confirmation. "Would you like to split a cab to the station?" he asks. "It'll be cheaper."

So that's how Cassie ends up sharing a cab and then later a train ride up to New York. Steve sketches and Cassie spends the trip happily catching up on the music she's missed. Her phone self-downloads new stuff so she always has something to listen to. They part ways at the station as Steve heads to the Tower and Cassie takes a cab to the Jackson's apartment.

Christmas is carried off without a hitch and Cassie returns to D.C on the 28th ladened down with several bags containing an assortment of every kind of blue candy in existence. The holiday passes completely free of monster attacks and everyone in attendance considers it a resounding success. She doesn't hear a word from her father or grandfather but she hadn't expected to in the first place. Greek and Roman gods didn't tend to keep track of pagan/Christian mortal holidays.

New Years comes and goes and classes pick back up again a few weeks later. Against all the odds, the world keeps spinning for the first month of the new year. Cassie marks her slander for all relevant dates in 2014 and thinks it's possible she might actually live to see those dates come. She doesn't go so far as to be optimistic about it, that way spells jinxes and sudden bouts of bad luck, but she also isn't necessarily certain that anything coming in the next twelve months will kill her either.

Things are looking pretty solid all the way up to Saint Patrick's Day. On the day of the holiday, she leaves for classes early and sprints home as quickly as possible when they're over in the hopes of avoiding crowds of drunk people. Her plan works fairly well and she's only catcalled twice. One drunk tries to get handsy and Cassie takes great pleasure in breaking two of his fingers before walking away.

"You aren't wearing green," is Steve's only comment when she passes him in the hallway. He's carrying an armload of groceries and is clearly unafraid of the Saint Patrick's Day crowd of drunks. She sees he's made his own concessions to the holiday by wearing olive green military cargo pants and a bottle green tee shirt.

The comment stops her in her tracks and Cassie mutters a swear. "I forgot that was a part of this holiday."

"What did you think it was about?" Steve asks. "It's an Irish holiday. Green is the entire point."

"And here I was thinking it was about alcohol and getting drunk," Cassie said conversationally. Steve shakes his head disparagingly and she raises an eyebrow. "The drunk guys outside agree with me. At least they seemed to around all the catcalling."

The last sentence is almost under her breath and more to herself than it is to Steve. He seems to hear her anyway because his forehead crinkles in a frown. "Are people hassling you?"

She waves the comment away. "It was nothing I couldn't handle." Steve's frown doesn't waver and Cassie is briefly and wildly tempted to tell him about the fingers she had broken earlier. Instead she chokes the words back and searches for something else to say. "So," she manages. "Tell me Fighting Irish, what penalty must I pay for failing to dress correctly for this most auspicious of days?"

There. That doesn't seem to bad. It's casual and joking and not at all insane or Steve-frown provoking. It also doesn't reveal Cassie's frantic mental search to figure out if she's incurred some form of horrific bad luck. Given her life, she really can't afford to be provoking the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing. Not knowing what pantheon she might be dealing with makes it a good idea to be non-specific.

Steve's face relaxes a bit at her joke so Cassie figures it's had the desired effect. "I think somebody Irish is supposed to pinch you," he says.

Cassie decides to take a page out of her father's book and sighs dramatically. She rolls up her sleeve to reveal the pale tan of her forearm and takes a single skip towards him and. "Do what you must," she says, presenting the bared skin with a flourish. "Though I do ask that you be gentle."

Something flickers lightly behind Steve's eyes and it's an emotion or feeling that Cassie can't quite place. He reaches out wth two fingers and a thumb and gives the skin a gentle pinch. "There," he says. "You're bad luck has been canceled."

"Thank the gods," Cassie mutters. Steve looks at her a little oddly. "Oh come on," she says, moving to cover. "You're telling me there's nothing even a little bit pagan pantheistic about a troop of midgets in green outfits, weird hats, and buckled shoes?"

"You might have a point," Steve concedes. "Happy Saint Patrick's Day."

Cassie returns the sentiment and then ducks back in to her apartment. She spends the rest of the night in back alleys doing patrols. She figures if there's any night monster's might use as feeding-frenzies a day when everyone's drunk might be it. The hunch is proved right when Cassie is confronted with a veritable horde of nasties over the course of the evening. On the bright side, everything is relatively quiet for a few days afterwards.

Life goes on as usual until pretty much April.

Yeah, if Cassie had to pick a date for when everything went wrong she'd say it was in early April.

In early April everything goes to Tartarus in a hand basket. A nice basket to be sure. Maybe on nicely woven out of decorative wicker, but still it's a trip to Tartarus in a vehicle highly inappropriate for such travel.

Because in early April Cassie officially meets Natasha Romanov and her entire apartment building is invaded by secret government types. In early the Winter Soldier tries to kill her and Hydra as an organization comes out of the shadows.

Basically, in Cassie's book early April of 2014 seriously sucks.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? The next update will be framed dominantly around the events of CAWS. However, I do plan to make adjustments to the movie plot to include Cassie more and work in Bucky differently from cannon for the rest of my story. I tried to write this in Steve's perspective but it wasn't really working so I went back and changed everything back to Cassie. Maybe I'll write some of Steve's P.O.V some other time or keep it like deleted scenes to show you guys later if you want them. Thank you all so much for the great support you've given me so far! It's been amazing! I wanted to use this chapter to set up the basis for a relationship and I'm interested in what you thought of it. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No in every way you can think of to say it in every language imaginable.**

Cassie gets approximately two days to enjoy the month of April before the entire situation goes, as the military types say, FUBAR. And when Cassie says FUBAR, she means really really freaking FUBAR. Not a little bit FUBAR. Like, all the way plus extra percentages of FUBAR. Mathematically improbable levels of FUBAR.

To be fair, those two days are a pretty solid forty-eight hours. Cassie has definitely had worse two day time spans. For perusal she offers any two days of any summer she had had since meeting Percy Jackson at age twelve.

So by Cassie's personal scale April first and second of 2014 are perfectly good days. She aces an exam, has a pretty good shift as an observer at G.W hospital (not a nurse named Kate is nowhere to be found), and scores some really awesome falafel for lunch. She gets her apartment vacuumed which she's been meaning to do for quite a while and bakes up a seriously awesome batch of chocolate chip cookies using Sally Jackson's recipe minus the blue food coloring.

That fantastic reign of utterly normal productivity begins it's screeching halt early on the morning of the third day of the month. The shift she had ended up taking had started at eleven pm the night before on April third (a day that will forever serve in Cassie's memory as the final sanity demarcation on her life). She finishes at four AM on April forth and because it's such a weird time she can't catch a bus home or take the metro with any degree of ease and calling a cab would take forever so Cassie decides to walk home.

To be completely clear Cassie doesn't recommend walking home alone in D.C post ten at night and pre six in the morning no matter who you are or what neighborhood you're in. However, Cassie happens to have a slight advantage over the average potential mugger given that she's seventy-five percent god. She figures she can handle a gang banger with a switchblade, and that's not over confidence, just truth. One highly confused earthborn that has no business in a city and about a half hour later Cassie's unlocking her front door and crossing the lobby with vague hopes of getting some sleep before her morning lecture at ten.

Because Steve Rogers is a genetically perfected all-American super soldier he's leaving his apartment as Cassie comes up the stairs. They seem to have these sorts of brush-by meetings a lot and Cassie for one is suspicious of the timing. The next time she sees the three fates she plans to demand some serious answers. She's willing to threaten them with their own knitting needles if she has to.

He's dressed to go jogging in impeccably tied sneakers, track pants, and a grey-blue athletic tee shirt. Given that Cassie is female, heterosexual, and alive, she takes a moment to appreciate the way that the high-tech fabric stretches across his shoulders, lending definition to his pectorals and showing hints of his abdominals.

Hey, she's a med student and the child of a very artistic god. She is fully able to appreciate the aesthetic beauty that is Steve Rogers in a tight shirt and frankly feels that it might be her duty to do so given that she does have ample opportunity. Waste not, want not, as they say.

Cassie doesn't plan on wasting a thing.

"Good morning," Cassie greets as brightly as she can. The interaction had hit the point where not talking would be extremely awkward so she goes for basic and accurate.

Steve might or might not notice that she's just been staring at his chest. If he does it doesn't seem to bother him because he gives her a smile as he fiddles with his keys. "Good morning. Are you just getting in?"

Cassie nods. "Yeah. My shift ended at four. Depending on what time it is now, I think I might have time for three hours of sleep and a load of laundry before my first class."

"I don't know how you do it," Steve says with a little shake of the head. "That's a lot of work and not much sleep."

"Judicious napping," Cassie tells him dryly. "And after this long in school I've pretty much trained myself to treat sleep as a luxury and not a given." The statement is completely true in everything except the part about school. The last time Cassie had a completely reliable sleep schedule that a normal person would have found acceptable she had just graduated the portion of her education wherein napping was scheduled for her.

She shrugs a bit as a thought occurs to her. "If none of that works there's always coffee. Failing that, I've heard good things about methanphetamines." Not that she would ever be able to use them. Cassie's demigod system thoroughly rejected most drugs if they were any stronger than something like Advil or cough syrup. Yet another fun effect of her screwy genetic coding.

Steve gives a small smile and Cassie steps aside and towards her door to let him past her down the stairs. Before he moves though, he hesitates, still flipping his keyring around his finger and in to his palm and down again. "You know," he says. There's a note in his voice that Cassie would almost label as being nervous if it was coming from almost any other person on the planet. "About your laundry... I have a machine. You know," he waves a hand back in towards his apartment door. "In there. You could," he wavers for a moment like he isn't sure where his own offer is going. "Use it? Maybe. If you wanted."

To her own surprise Cassie feels her cheeks warm and knows she's blushing. She dearly hopes that the serum Steve received didn't give him night vision of some kind. If she's lucky the low light in the hallway might cover up her blushing. However, Cassie knows her own life well enough to be almost positive that she isn't that lucky. She still has to say something though so she does her best. "I guess," she says slowly. "That would be a lot closer than going all the way down to the basement."

The look of relief on Steve's face could be almost comical. Clearly he feels she's steered the conversation in to a somewhat safe area. "It's much cheaper too," he adds.

In the next moment Cassie does something she can only claim as an instance of temporary insanity. It's partly Steve's own fault because his comment gets a whole host of inappropriate thoughts running through her head and Cassie is impulsive by nature so that all has to be expressed somehow. What she does is straighten and flip some of her blonde hair out of her face. "Oh yeah?" she asks. "What's it cost?"

Yup. Cassie's sticking with temporary insanity. She doesn't care if it doesn't hold up in court very often. She'll make it work.

It's insane but it suddenly seems to be Steve's turn to be embaressed. A pink flush creeps across his cheek bones and Cassie isn't sure but it's possible that the tops of his ears are turning red. Despite that he's more put together than she was with her reply. Instead of any awkward fumbling for words he squares his shoulders like he's going in to battle, looks her dead in the eyes and says, "A cup of coffee."

Cassie tips her head but doesn't close the gap between them physically just yet. Steve seems to be being careful not to crowd her and as a girl who has spent more than enough time fighting in enclosed spaces Cassie appreciates it. Besides, she gets the feeling that this offer is something more than neighborly friendship. This moment feels almost fragile and Cassie refuses to be the one to break it. "I see," she says, and her voice sounds odd to her own ears. "Does it cost another cup to use your dryer?"

For a brief moment Steve looks almost stunned, but he recovers quickly and swallows. "No," he says with a shake of his head. Then he does take a step forwards but he does it slowly, telegraphing his moves like he's afraid he'll move too fast and spook her. The notion almost makes Cassie giggle as it crosses her mind because of all of the possible metaphorical implications it represents.

As he approaches Cassie holds her ground in her doorway. She's forced to tip her head back as he gets closer and is suddenly struck by just how _tall_ Steve actually is. Cassie is used to people being taller than she is, she's short enough that it's possible Steve would have been taller than her pre-serum, but this feels different somehow. This is a deliberate invasion of her personal space by a man who's being very careful to be close without touching her. Even without physical contact, Cassie can feel the warmth of Steve's body heat changing the air around her. The doctor in her wonders if that's an effect of an updated metabolism. The part of her that's a woman with a man she suddenly finds no issue admitting she's physically attracted to is glitching too badly to form a coherent thought.

Steve stops about six inches away. "Maybe, dinner next time we can both swing it?" he suggests.

"Dinner?" Cassie asks.

"Or breakfast," he says easily. His tone is light but his eyes are as serious as Cassie has ever seen them. "Whatever comes first." He shrugs a shoulder. "Whichever we have time for. Whichever you want." He eases himself back a little way, opening up space between them again. "That's the price for the dryer."

Somehow he manages to look both deadly serious and incredibly hopeful. The combination makes his face seem open and vulnerable at the same time and something in Cassie feels like it's melting a little. His eyes are soft and blue and the darkness of the color makes her think of deep water at the bottom of a cliff.

Cassie forces herself to stop for a moment and think. She's not emotionally or socially inept and she knows instinctually that whatever she does next won't be something that she'll be able to back up from. Cassie takes one last deep breath and then... she jumps. She takes a step towards him, shifting her body and closing the gap he'd opened. With steady hands she reaches out and takes the key he still holds lonely in his palm.

He lets the key pass from his fingers to hers easily, staring down at her like he's not yet completely certain that this conversation has gone the way his ears and eyes are telling him it has. The metal is warm in her palm and Cassie holds it up a little so that Steve's sure to be able to see that she has it before she tucks it carefully in to her coat pocket. Then she meets his eyes again. "I can do coffee any time," she says carefully and is slightly gratified by the way his eyes widen. "Dinner though," she continues. "That'll be harder to arrange. It might take some planning."

The smile Steve unleashes on her then is damn near blinding and so freaking adorable Cassie almost can't stand it. "Planning's not actually a problem for me."

Feeling as though she's crossed some kind of Rubicon Cassie nods once decisively. "Good." Then, feeling as though as long as the river's crossed she might as well enjoy the view, she takes another step and then they are very definitively sharing personal space. She puts a hand on his shoulder and the other on his forearm and uses the leverage to pull up on to her toes and places a quick kiss on his cheek. "I'll look forward to it."

She drops back down on to the flats of her feet and steps back quickly, unlocking her door without looking at it. She can't look at her door because she's busy looking up at Steve who's expression is morphing slowly in to one of stunned happiness. His smile has turned in to a pleased grin and that combined with the pink still in his cheeks is simply unfair.

It takes him a moment to mobilize and apparently get his thoughts together which is enough time for Cassie to open her door and take a step backwards until she's standing in the doorframe. "I have to go," he says, hooking a thumb back at the stairs. "I have a run... down on the mall."

"I have a class at ten," she tells him. "Are you okay with me leaving your key somewhere if you aren't back by then?"

"I don't think any one is going to be all that tempted to rob me," Steve says dryly and Cassie has to concede that he's probably right. The rotating teams of highly armed agents outside is probably a good deterrent too, but they aren't talking about that right now. "I should be back before you go but it's possible I might... have to be somewhere. If it's going to be a while I'll tell you somehow and you can keep the key 'till I'm back."

Cassie leans on the frame with her arms crossed. "Agent postal service seemed to work okay last time."

"I'm glad you got that," Steve says sincerely. "I wasn't sure that SHIELD would follow through."

"The message was lovingly hand delivered by a bald man whose ability to crush my fingers is something that I have total faith in," she assures him. "Anyway, if you want to get to your run maybe you should..." she makes a vague gesture towards the stairs. The evil evil stairs.

The reminder kick starts him. "Right," he starts to back up. His smile isn't at all diminished from what it was earlier and he doesn't turn away from her to face forwards until his foot hits the creaky top step. "I'll see you for coffee!" he calls.

"Enjoy your run," she calls back.

It's not her best ever parting line but at that moment Cassie doesn't particularly care. It's early and she's had a long night that included too much coffee and not enough sleep yet. Snappy comebacks are not yet requisite during this time frame.

Besides, she's pretty sure she's just agreed to go on as many as two dates with Steve Rogers/Captain America, the extremely handsome, surprisingly intelligent, shockingly sweet, shy, and charming super hero extraordinaire and golden boy representative of the forties, American values, and patriotism in general.

Snappy comebacks can freaking bite her right now for all she cares.

Cassie rides the shockwave of the morning's events through a solid three hour nap and a ten minute shower. After getting dressed she does battle with her hairdryer for approximately five minutes before giving up and throwing her hair in to a messy bun to dry on its own. Her laundry basket is ready to go so she fills a thermos with coffee and steps in to the hallway with the basket balanced on her hip and the mug firmly in hand.

She pauses briefly on the landing, inches from pulling the cowardly move and ducking down in to the basement with a pile of quarters. She gives herself a firm shake and yells at herself to get over it. Given she's already agreed to date the man it's a little late to have second thoughts about using the washing machine that prompted the event.

With that thought in mind and the key that Steve gave her feeling like a led weight in her pocket, she crosses the hall in five steps and fishes it out of her pocket. It takes a bit of a jiggle and a firmer turn than her own door does but a moment later the door swings open. She supposes Steve's enhanced strength probably means he doesn't notice if his front door sticks a little. Cassie's own strength isn't exactly average, but in everyday life that normally just asserts itself by making her generally more durable. Demonstrating anything approaching true super strength means a more deliberate action.

The inspection Cassie manages to make of Steve's apartment as she hunts for the washing machine reveals that his place is pretty much the exact reverse layout of hers with a little bit more space and nicer appliances. What she sees of it is also painfully devoid of personal items. Well, not by Cassie's standards really, but she does actually keep a few personal photos around. There's one of her mother holding her as a baby, a photo strip with Thalia, Luke, and Annabeth, one of her with her siblings at camp, and two or three more of various combinations of her friends.

Steve doesn't have anything like that anywhere that she can plainly see it. It's possible he does have photos somewhere more private, like his bedroom, but Cassie does have limits to how far she's willing to snoop if her life isn't in danger somehow and right now it isn't.

Another huge difference between her apartment and Steve's is the overall level of tidiness. Everything in the place is military neat and uniform from the furniture to the plates and glasses on the exposed shelving in his kitchen. Cassie isn't a slob because she's never had enough stuff or space to get messy and despite having lived in her apartment for almost two full years she can be packed and gone without leaving a trace in under an hour. Looking at Steve's place, she's pretty sure he could be out and gone in fifteen minutes and not feel at all like he was leaving behind anything personal.

The washing machine and the dryer are side by side and tucked out of the way in a slightly recessed alcove that might have possibly been a closet once upon a time judging from the screen that can be closed over it. Both machines look modern but not so fancy that she can't figure out how to get the settings she wants so she throws in her clothes with a cap full of detergent she borrows shamelessly from the bottle places helpfully on a shelf to the left of the dryer. It's a bit of a stretch for her because the shelf was installed for Steve who must have at least a foot on her. Steve's already given her permission to use the washer and since he's given her a key to his place she figures he won't begrudge her a few tablespoons worth of laundry soap.

As her clothes spin around Cassie curls up on the ground next to the machine and lets her mind drift. She'd had a teacher tell her a story once about an autistic boy who had slept on top of the washing machine for years because the rhythmic thumping was calming. Cassie hadn't quite grasped the concept then, but with the machine thumping away at her back lulling her towards sleep again she thinks she gets it now.

Before she can drift too far the machine stops and Cassie realizes it's already been half an hour. She shifts the load over to the dryer and starts that before starting to run a lead of whites in the wash. Her whites are dry and all of her clothes are back in her laundry basket when there's a knock on the door and Cassie freezes.

It's a fairly gentle knock. Nothing about it says 'a hostel force is about to break down the door so duck and cover and find the closest possible weapon' but Cassie doesn't have much faith left in the universe.

On the other hand, this isn't her apartment, it's Steve's. Steve is one of the few people who is probably a reliably rational human being this early in the morning. Cassie isn't generally in a position to track who visits Steve and when so for all she knows he has visitors at this hour on a regular basis.

The knock sounds again so Cassie follows an impulse and goes to answer it, full basket now back on her hip. She's not entirely certain that it's within her purview, or what Steve might have imagined when he handed her his key, but she's there so she figures 'screw it'. Before the knock sounds again she yanks the door open to find Natasha Romanov standing outside with her hand raised.

For a moment neither of them do anything besides blink at each other, running assessments of each other. Cassie has a pretty good idea of what she's up against with the other woman already having seen her fighting style during the battle of Manhattan. If it comes down to a fight between them she figures that at the least she'll have the element of surprise. However, that's not actually a fight she's particularly interested in having.

In the interest of breaking a silence that's teetering dangerously on the boarder of becoming awkward Cassie forces herself to speak. "Hi," she says.

"Hello," Natasha replies. Her voice is carefully neutral but the corner of her mouth is turning up at one side and there's a mysterious looking spark in her eyes.

That look could potentially spell trouble later in life and Cassie braces herself for anything that might come next. She has a pretty good idea of what the situation looks like from the other woman's point of view but she's not entirely sure how best to address it so she just says, "Steve said I could borrow his washing machine this morning while he was out. He didn't mention he was expecting someone."

"This is an unplanned visit," Natasha says. "Something came up at work. Our boss asked me to come pick him up on the way in." Cassie nods and refuses to twitch under the searching look the other woman is pinning her with. She's stared down gods, titans, and literal giants before. She refuses on principle to blink in the face of Natasha Romanov. "I've met you before," she says. "You're that Med student who patched us up after New York."

"I moved here after that," Cassie explains. "I liked the city but I figured, with aliens falling from the sky, maybe it was time to make a change."

Natasha tips her head, regarding Cassie with an expression she can't quite read. "That's one hell of a coincidence," she comments conversationally.

This Cassie understands. She knows what suspicion is like. Hell, when Steve had first moved in she had seriously considered the possibility that one god or another was screwing with her. She still isn't sure that's not the case. With a shrug she offers Natasha the same explanation she's been telling herself for months on end now. "Well, fate's a bitch with a twisted sense of humor I guess."

Natasha actually smiles at that and holds out a hand. "I'm Nat," she says. "It's nice to meet you."

Cassie shifts her basket to free her other hand. "Cassie," she says. "And likewise."

The moment her hand touches Natasha's Cassie realizes she's made a mistake. You can tell a lot about someone by their hands if you know what to look for, and Cassie's hands bear years of scaring and evidence of broken and healed bones that not even magic can ever erase. The skin is a bit chapped from constant washing her cuticles are ragged because she has a bad habit of picking at them when she's distracted.

Most importantly though, Cassie's hands are archers hands. They are lined with particular calluses all along the finger she uses to draw the string and hold her bow. The toughened skin follows a very particular pattern and Cassie knows that Natasha will recognize it. The woman's long time partner is one of the very few non-demigod people on the planet who actually relies on archery as a method of combat and self-defense for gods' sake.

Slowly, Cassie withdraws her hand and shifts her basket again. Natasha is looking at her again and Cassie gets the feeling she's being reassessed. It's as though Natasha had measured her out for a piece of clothing, seen that it didn't fit, and was now wondering weather to simple tailor the existing clothes or pick out an entirely new outfit. Privately, Cassie thinks correctly measuring her up correctly would take shopping at an entirely different store. Possibly one in a far away zip code.

"Steve mentioned something about going running down on the National Mall," Cassie offers, hoping there's a way that she can push this conversation to some sort of conclusion without it being painfully awkward. "You can probably find him there. I don't know if you have his number, but if you do you might want to call him first or something. He looked kind of hyped up this morning when he left and I don't know how long he can run for."

Natasha thanks her for the pointer, the devilish smile she had worn when she'd first seen Cassie in Steve's doorway is back on her face. Cassie locks Steve's door behind her and puts his key back in to her pocket. From what she's been able to tell Steve's missions are unpredictable in length and sometimes last for whole months on end.

She goes back to her apartment and gets herself ready for class. She'll fold the laundry later. Besides, wondering weather or not her entire life history is about to be dissected by Natasha Romanov and whomever she might be friends with over at SHIELD is somewhat distracting.

It's that preoccupation that has Cassie calling Chiron and Reyna that evening to ask just how deeply buried her personal records as a demigod are actually buried. As it turns out, the answer to that question is really freaking far. Like, at the bottom of a river in Tartarus far.

Feeling more pressured, Cassie ends up chatting with Reyna. The other girl is still living out in California and trying to pick a new candidate to groom to be praetor in her place. It's not going so well and Cassie lets her vent for a while because that'll be healthier for everyone involved than Reyna picking some unfortunate soul to spar with. In addition to her duties with the legion, the girl is also two years through her law degree. Eventually they end up chatting and commiserating over trying to balance school with everything else in their lives. Essentially, they can conclude together that A) It's almost impossible and B) Sleep is for the week.

Talking with someone that she doesn't have to lie to about anything in her life is amazingly nice. She feels relaxed in a way that she hasn't in a while. The two of them flip between languages as they talk and it's the first time in a long time that Cassie's actually been able to have a conversation in Greek or Latin. The muscles are rusty but she gets in to the swing of things and ends up sitting in the hallway for no particular reason with her phone cradled to her ear and resting against her shoulder.

She's working up the nerve to bring up the situation with Steve and maybe ask for some advice when the man himself opens the door and begins to make his way up the stairs. Really it's just as well. Reyna has been historically worse with boys and dating than Cassie has by virtue of the fact that Cassie has actually dated a few people. If she really gets stuck Cassie might just call Piper or Rachel and pray that neither girl is too busy to give some advice.

"Reyna," she says. "Prepei na fygo. We should talk again soon. Antio i adelfi mou." She hangs up and looks up at Steve where he's stopped, leaning on the banister watching her. "Hey," she says.

"Hey," he replies, standing up and moving towards her. He's carrying a bag now that he wasn't before and Cassie wonders if it's just one that he keeps in a locker at SHIELD somewhere. "What language was that?" he asks. "I didn't recognize it."

Cassie tucks her phone away and starts shifting to stand up. "Greek. I don't remember it but my mom used to tell me that my father spoke it. Besides, I have some other friends who I can use it with."

Steve extends a hand in offering and she nods. He grips her hand and Cassie wraps her other hand around his wrist. He hauls her up to vertical with absolutely no trouble and her feet feel a bit like they might leave the ground at the pull. Steve gages his strength pretty carefully but there's just no compensating for the fact that she doesn't weigh much and he's a super soldier. If Steve wanted to he could probably use her body weight to do bicep curls.

"Are you fluent?" he asks.

His eyes are bright with a genuine interest and Cassie nods in response. "Mostly. I don't get a lot of opportunities to use it so I'm rusty. I forget stuff but if I were to be dropped in Athens today it'd come back pretty fast." She shrugs. "It helped a lot in school. I took some Latin too."

Steve tips his head. "I used to go to mass with my Ma when I was a kid. Not a word of it was in English, just straight Latin for almost three hours. You don't here it a lot anymore."

She shrugs. "Well, it is a dead language. Outside of religion, law, and medical practices it seems to be resting comfortably in whatever grave the linguists of the world decided it's lying in. Momento mori and everything."

"'Remember you must die,'" Steve translates. "Yeah that came up a lot in those three hours. Especially with me."

It's Cassie's turn to be confused and she frowns up at him. "I've never been but I thought church was more for a general assembly than it was specified to one person." Factually, Cassie hasn't actually been to any kind of religious gathering outside of the food she burns in tribute to the gods. It's hard to believe in higher powers when your entire family tree is gods. "I thought Confessional was the one-on-one part."

He nods. "Well traditionally yes, but I was sick a lot so I ended up with a little more face to face time with the priest in my neighborhood than other people. I think I must have had last rights, god three times."

"Well then I guess you're soul must be really, really prepared," Cassie blurts out. Then she screws her eyes shut and tips her head back towards the ceiling. "Sorry," she apologizes to the lighting panels. "That wasn't the right thing to say. I don't always do the thinking thing before the talking part. I've been working on it for the last twenty years or so. Really since I learned how to talk."

Steve is silent so Cassie cracks an eye open to gaze his reaction. To her shock he's giving her a small smile. "My friend Bucky made almost the same joke after time number three," he informs her. His tone is almost wistful, like he's looking back on a fond memory. In a way Cassie understands that. If almost dying made a memory completely unusable for past joy, most of her memories would be nothing but grim snap shots.

"He sounds like he was a good friend with a good sense of humor," Cassie says, taking care to make her words as gentle as she can.

He seems to appreciate her efforts because he smiles down at her again and rubs the back of his neck. It seems to be one of his nervous ticks and Cassie is oddly pleased to know him well enough to recognize it. "I was wondering," he says. "Since I'm around and you don't seem to be working, would now be a good time for that cup of coffee? I realize it's late."

"That's okay," Cassie finds herself saying. "Neither of us has a lot of free time. We should make the best of it right?" She rubs her palms against the fabric of her black yoga pants. "Would you like to come over to my apartment?"

"You could come to mine," he offers.

Cassie doesn't know how manners worked in the forties but she has to assume that Steve's feeling somewhat trapped by the upbringing he had and attempting to adhere to the social norms of the present. "I could," she agrees. "But the point of me owing you coffee is kind of that, you know, I owe you. Not the other way around."

Steve makes a movement with his shoulders that might or might not be a shrug. "Honestly, as long as we get a conversation out of it, I'd consider us square."

She lets herself take a moment to process that. It's kind of a major statement, more so than it would be from other people. When Steve Rogers says he means something, Cassie has absolutely no doubt that he means it. "Come in," she says softly. "I'll make us a cup of coffee and... we'll talk."

Her words clearly have an effect and it's Steve's turn to pause for a moment. He bites his lip and doesn't seem completely sure where to look before he settles on meeting her eyes. He indicates the bag slung over his shoulder. "I should drop this off first."

Cassie nods, hands him his key so that he can get in to his own apartment again, and retreats a step to her own door. "I'll leave the door open," she tells him. "Just knock and come in."

"Right." He steps to his own door and when he's a few inches away he pauses. His entire body seems to go on alert and his voice is careful as he asks "Did you leave the radio on earlier?"

That question immediately has a few million alarm bells ringing in her head. Her hand goes to where her bow hangs in charm form on her necklace. "No," she says carefully. "Why? is it on now?"

Steve must here the caution in her tone and mistake it for worry because he gives her a look that is probably patented to reassure innocent civilians. Which, Cassie reminds herself, is exactly what he thinks she is. "It's probably nothing," he says in a tone that would be soothing if Cassie hadn't spent nearly two decades in potential attack-and-defend situations. It makes her perfectly capable of judging when a situation is off and this one stinks like rotten fish and spoiled eggs. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

With that he unlocks his door and goes inside looking every inch like a man bracing himself to fight.

Cassie goes back in to her apartment on autopilot, thinking through her options as quickly as she can. The next time she spares a thought for her surroundings she's facing the kitchen counter and looking at her reflection where it's distorted in the shinning surface of a knife blade. Cassie picks it up and spins the blade in her hand. It's pretty well balanced for a knife that's not actually meant for combat.

 _Wait,_ Cassie tells herself. _Just wait. It might be nothing. Maybe something happened with the radio wiring and it came on by itself. That happens sometimes. Just-_

That's when a jarring crash shatters the quiet of the night and Cassie wears in every language she can think of. She takes the knife she has in her hand and sprints out of her apartment and across the hall to Steve's. The door is already blown apart and she charges through the opening, casing the scene as she arrives. The knife is balanced in her grip and Cassie is ready to either throw it or fight hand to hand depending on what the situation requires.

her eyes take perhaps half a second to adjust to the complete lack of light in the apartment. It's a shorter gap than most people would have to contend with but it is still a gap. When her vision focuses the sight that greats her isn't pretty. For one thing, there's a man she doesn't recognize apparently bleeding out all over Steve's kitchen floor.

Cassie drops her knife with a clatter and hurries over. "Holy shit!" she mutters. Steve turns sharply at the noise, ready to fight but Cassie just drops to her knees beside the figure on the floor and starts trying to locate the source of the breathing. "What happened?" she demands to know.

"Three gun shots," Steve replies automatically. It's possible that her tone was enough like a battlefield order that he's responding out of habit. She doesn't care. Whatever he can tell her she'll take, no matter the cause. "Direct hits, both to the chest. Pretty sure they were through and throughs."

Immediately Cassie starts grabbing dish towels to try to stop the bleeding. She can't tell right now if the bullet's gone all the way through or not and at the moment she doesn't have time to check because Not-A-Nurse Kate has just cleared the door holding a serious looking gun. "Captain Rogers?" she calls. "I'm Agent 13. SHIELD Special Service."

Cassie tunes out after that, trying her hardest to stop the damn bleeding and devoting herself to trying to keep this man alive. She doesn't know him, but at this point she has no choice but to assume he's one of the good guys. Steve leaves at a full run to try to take down the shooter and Cassie wonders if he'll be able to catch up. A smart sniper would have chosen a building not too far away so that they could verify the kill and Steve is super human so he might have a chance.

Agent 13 calls for paramedics and Cassie keeps the man on the ground alive until they get there. She tracks vitals impeccably and knows the full nature of the injuries simply through touch, part of her abilities. The man is definitely in bad shape but with luck, the right timing, and a few skilled cardiovascular trauma surgeons she thinks he has a reasonable chance. When she hears the paramedics begin their rush through the door she takes a risk and injects a quick shot of healing magic in to the man's system. It won't be enough to heal him fully but it might slow the bleeding some and replace some of the blood he's already lost. Whoever this man is, Cassie wants him to live so she can ask him in person what the actual fuck is going on.

No one questions her when Cassie climbs in to the ambulance with the man who's name she learns is Nick Fury, SHIELD director. She tells the surgeons at the hospital everything she knows, explains hurriedly that she's nearly done with med school and has experience with trauma surgery. Cassie ends up scrubbing in with them.

That's how she knows the doctors are wrong when they call time of death.

If she had to guess, she'd say Fury has injected himself with some form of Tetrodotoxin to slow his heart rate and mimic death. The drug can't fool Cassie though. Her father is the god of medicine and Cassie has enough ability from him to know when someone she's treating dies and when they're unconscious.

Nick Fury is most definitely still alive. However, if he's faking it, someone else will be helping him. Probably the brunette woman who takes his bod away.

Cassie is a curious person, and she very rarely backs off when she should.

She wants to know why.

That curiosity is why she doesn't just vanish, and instead agrees to go with one of the agents who's been camped in a car outside her building back to SHIELD HQ for what they call a "civilian debrief". The building is impressive, but Cassie only assesses it tactically as the car she's in the back seat of grows closer. She counts floors, windows, exits, and the number of cars in the garage. By the time she's taken inside she has a spatial map of the entire facility in her head and has the door codes for every door she's gone through completely memorized.

Cassie is also the granddaughter of Mercury. And Mercury is the god of criminals, luck, and thieves.

It turns out to be a good thing that she's prepared because it means she has a plan for when the alarms start going off throughout the building. She hears through one agents comm link that they are trying to apprehend Steve with strike teams and that's enough for Cassie to cut this visit short. If SHIELD is going after Captain America with the intent to harm or kill something is very, very, wrong (more than she realized before) and this place is no longer the best one to be in to figure it out.

No one bothered to put handcuffs on her because she wasn't under arrest and only two agents are supposed to be watching her because someone higher up the food chain has decided that she's not a threat. That's a mistake. But hey, it's one that benefits her so who's she to complain?

Cassie times her escape until they're in a camera blindspot and then takes down both agents with well placed thumb jabs. They're big and fast but she takes them by surprise and they drop like bags of bricks. After that, she very calmly punches in the security code for the elevator and rides it up to the roof. Once she's there, she absorbs the power of the sun and lets her body melt away, transporting herself back to her apartment to pick up her supplies.

From the looks of things SHIELD hasn't been there yet and she takes that as a good sign. She implements her bug-out plan and has the apartment stripped of everything that belongs to her in forty minutes. A quick bus ride later and everything she owns besides a bag containing her armor, weapons, and medical equipment is stashed securely in a warehouse registered to Camp Jupiter.

Then Cassie does what any demigod would do. Which is to say, it's stupid, reckless, and very possible might end with her dying. Probably in an extremely painful and unfortunate way.

She transport without any idea where she's actually aiming to go.

Normally Cassie has to be thinking about where she wants to end up. Even just being able to look at a photo to visualize the location is sometimes enough. The more familiar she is with where she wants to go the better.

This time though, Cassie uses a different method. Instead of thinking about a place as the power of the sun's rays wash through her body, turning her into brilliant and insubstantial molecules of light, Cassie focuses on a person. Specifically she thinks about Steve, with his ernest, shy smiles, and huge blue eyes. Steve who is always nice and so often sad. She visualizes with absolute clarity the lines of his shoulders and the shape of his face and recalls exactly how his voice had sounded when he had asked her out for coffee.

The good news is that the trick works without killing her though it definitely takes more energy than she might like. The world reforms as it should and a quick inspection reveals that she has all of her body parts and she didn't even lose her backpack in the transition. All of this is very good and Cassie takes a half a moment to feel proud of herself for the neatness of the jump.

The bad news is that she appears pretty much directly in Steve's lap in the middle of a strange man's living room absolutely scaring the shit out of everyone there including Natasha Romanov, a coffee skinned man with a closely shaved head whom she doesn't recognize, and Steve Rogers himself.

Needless to say the reactions to her appearance vary.

Natasha pulls a gun and has it pointed at her with the safety off in seconds. The man she doesn't recognize throws a spatula at her head and Cassie is forced to catch it out of the air or risk potential injury. Steve himself jerks out of his chair and nearly falls over backwards, knocking over the chair he'd been sitting in. This is unfortunate because the motion also dumps her on to the floor.

Cassie tucks and rolls and comes up standing against the far wall with her palms open and raised. Out of nowhere a wave of de ja vu hits her as the scene plays so very like the one that occurred when Cassie had first met the Avengers after the Battle of New York. "Wow!" she says. "I'm here to help!"

No one relaxes in the slightest and Natasha says. "How the hell did you do that?"

Her gun is still pointed at Cassie's head so Cassie decides to answer the question. "Teleportation," she says as calmly as she can. "But from where I'm standing that's not so important right now."

The man who had thrown a spatula at her actually raises his hand. "As the man whose home you just invaded I think I'm gonna have to disagree."

Cassie frowns at him. "Who are you exactly?" Natasha cocks the gun and seems ready to fire it so Cassie hurries on. "Look," she says, mostly directing her words at Steve. "I know I owe you an explanation but right now you two are wanted fugitives from your own organization and your friends been shot by the people you all work for. I knocked out two agents and snuck out of a secure government facility to come help you and from the looks of it you could use all the help you can get."

They're all still regarding her warily and Cassie rolls her eyes in frustration. "Oh come on!" she mutters. "Look, fine. I get it I appeared out of nowhere and that's weird. But is it honestly the weirdest thing any of you has ever seen?" She looks at Natasha. "You're some kind of KGB super spy and I don't know what you are but," she gestures at the man she doesn't know. "If you're involved in this you can't be just _normal._ And you," she continues, now looking at Steve. "I'm sorry but you're a genetically modified nearly indestructible super soldier. You periodically team up with a god and a gigantic green rage monster. There is no way that my appearing out of thin air is the strangest thing you've ever seen."

She takes a steadying breath and looks from Steve to Natasha. "You know Thor," she says. "You've met him and worked with him?" They both nod cautiously so Cassie continues. "We don't have the time for me to explain the particulars," she says. "But because of my family-" she cuts herself off. That conversation has the potential to be a long one and this isn't the time, place, or way to have it.

Instead she takes in another breath and counts her exhale as she looks at Steve. "Remember I told you my father was Greek and ditched my mother before I was born?" he nods again and she can't help but almost sag in relief. "Well my dad and Thor are kind of similar beings," she says cautiously. "Not the same. There are _major_ differences believe me. But the point is I have abilities and I can help you." She shrugs without lowering her hands from where they still are level with her head, palms open. "I'm sorry but right now I can't explain any better than I already have."

She focuses all of her attention on Steve then, every bit she has and hopes desperately that he will believe her, and let her words be enough. Not forever, but for now. "I can help you," she says earnestly. She puts every fiber of her being in to meaning those words. "I _want_ to help you. Will you let me?"

There's a long moment of silence as Steve seems to asses every inch of her. Finally, after an interminable pause he nods once in a jerky movement and tells Natasha to put away the gun. "Later," he says to Cassie. "Later you and me. We talk." It's not a suggestion, it's almost an order and Cassie raises her chin to make sure they're eye to eye and nods.

Steve nods back and goes back to planning. At that the man she doesn't know shrugs and introduces himself to her as Sam Wilson. Cassie shakes the hand he offers and compliments him on his spatula throwing skills. It brings an easy grin to his face and Cassie can tell that in Sam she's found a potential friend and worthwhile ally.

If they all live through what comes next she supposes.

Survival.

Right.

Sam dishes her up a huge plate of pancakes and bacon which she gets through about half of before getting full. She pushes the rest over to Steve who she knows must need to eat more than the average human being. He flicks an almost cautious glance her way, but empties the plate anyway. Cassie doesn't let his suspicion bother her at the moment. He's earned the right to be suspicious given her rather dramatic entrance and as Cassie said earlier, they have bigger problems.

A glib comment about having managed to have their breakfast together sooner than expected crosses her mind, but Cassie shoves it down before it can escape her mouth. Now isn't time for sarcasm or awkwardness. It's time to plan, and plan they do.

Their brainstorming eventually comes around to Steve wondering out loud how two of the most recognizable people in Washington can kidnap someone in broad daylight. "You can't," Cassie says with a shake of the head just as Same echoes her thoughts and produces a file documenting his military training with metallic wings worthy of Daedalus, calling it a resume. Steve gives him one last chance to back out but Sam doesn't take it and after an hour they have their plan.

They have to make a stop to pick up his wings where they're under guard at Fort Meade. Cassie helps Natasha break in, pointing out a few small security devices she detects and disarms before the other woman can get caught. After, the woman treats her to a small smile and says to call her Nat and Sam whistles in appreciation of the speedy operation. Nothing like a heist to quickly solidify the bonds of a team.

Steve doesn't really meet her eyes and he doesn't talk while they drive along the highway and back in to D.C. She can feel his eyes on her. Watching as she interacts with the others and takes stalk of her supplies. She acts like she can't feel it but internally she sighs. Once all of this is over she'll have to explain everything. She'll owe him that.

The English language does not contain the words to describe how little she is looking forward to that conversation. Neither does Latin or Greek. Maybe if she remembers later she'll ask Leo and Piper if Spanish or French is any more helpful. While she's at it she might call Nico too. Mentally she adds calling Will and her other siblings to her to-do list. It's generally good demigod protocol to let your siblings know that you aren't dead after proof that you've been involved in something highly dangerous has just been broadcast on national television.

Cassie is just wondering weather CNN has managed to identify her yet and worrying if they'll dig up any of the other news stories she's been involved in over the years (helping blow up the Saint Luis Arch was a particular moment) when their car comes under attack. Their attacker is a heavily armed man wearing a mask. His left arm is solid, shining, sinister looking metal from shoulder to finger tips.

The doctor in her admires the refinement of the prosthetic and wonders what kind of motor control he has, how it's attached, and what kind of sensation the man it's attached to has. The tactician in her wonders if it takes longer for the fingers to react than those in his other hand and questions exactly how strong the metal might be and what material it's made out of.

The demigod instincts in her just tell her that whatever that arm is, it's _wrong._ She knows deep in her gut that that arm represents something completely separate from the man that it's attached to. Instinctually, she knows that if she sees the way that the metal is attached, the sight will be unhealed, and covered with ugly scar tissue.

All of these thoughts pass through her head in a moment and are immediately replaced with one singular thought...

It would really suck to survive countless attacks by mythological monsters, crazed gods from four separate pantheons, a titan war, a giant war, multiple undead roman emperors, several quests to decide the fate of the world, and a bizarre night out with the LA chapter of the Party Ponies just to be killed by a couple of pissed of Nazi's with a murderous cyborg.

Just sayin'.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I had originally planned to try to adept all of CAWS in one chapter but by the time I hit the highway battle I was already over 9k words and that just seemed like it would be too long so now I plan to finish adapting the movie for this story in a second chapter. Do you guys like how I've adjusted it so far? I worried a little while writing it about when exactly to drop Cassie in with the team but breakfast with Sam (the probably most well adjusted MCU individual) was as good a time as any. I've started to plan how Cassie's in depth explanation to Steve will go but it seemed like she would have to say _something_ to explain herself at this point. Anyway, tell me your thoughts so far! I'm open to all comments and suggestions if you've got them. Thank you all so much to everyone who's reviewed and favorited so far. You guys are the best! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Nope. I have nothing.**

Several things happen all at once when the Winter Soldier appears on the free way.

One of those things is that Jasper Sitwell dies. Cassie doesn't get all that torn up about it. For one thing, the man is you know, a nazi. For another he helped to orchestrate the upcoming genocide of several tens of thousands of people. As far as she's concerned the only really bad thing about Sitwell's death is that they loose a potential resource for getting in to SHIELD.

The other problem with Sitwell's death is that the Winter Soldier is on top of their car and has just shattered the windshield with his metal arm. He's also demonstrated that that arm is capable of flinging a fully grown man nearly thirty yards. And in to the path of an oncoming semi-truck. Ouch.

Once Sitwell's been thrown from the car Natasha dives in to the front seat to cover Steve with her own body and Cassie admires the dedication as she herself drops to the floor of the car. Sam tries to maintain control of the steering wheel and Steve thinks quickly and hits the emergency break. The sudden stop throws the Winter Soldier off the top of their car and in to the road before them.

The man flips in the air and skids down the pavement, using his metal arm to create friction. The metal fingertips gouge furrows in the asphalt and send sparks flying out in to the air. Dark hair hangs in mailed curtains around his face which is covered from the eyes down with a black metal mask. It's disturbingly like a gag and Cassie has to shake that thought away because she's about to have to fight this man and a gag implies a repression of free will, an imprisonment.

Cassie can fight off an enemy combatant. She can use maximum force and have no regrets as long as she survives. Fighting a prisoner who doesn't have another choice is different.

The doctor in Cassie wonders about the prosthetic limb. She wonders how exactly it attaches, and weather the process is painful. In the back of her mind she wants to know if he feels phantom sensation in a limb that's no longer there. She wonders if it responds with a cognitive delay, if he has a full range of motion, and how much sensation he has in the fingers.

If she's being honest, the doctor in her isn't the only one interested. If she's about to go in to combat those same questions will help her assess her enemy. The question of weather the metal arm is a definitive weakness or a strength could be crucial.

There's one thing she's absolutely sure of though. No matter what else that arm is, it's somehow completely and inarguably _wrong_. Somehow it's disjointed, like it has nothing to do with the person attached to it. Cassie suddenly knows without a doubt that the if she could see the attachment sight, it wouldn't be clean and neat the way a normal surgical amputation and prosthetic replacement sight would. It's more likely to be a mess of knotted scar tissue than anything else.

When all of those thoughts come together in her head like puzzle pieces Cassie feels like she's been jolted with a high voltage cattle prod. And given that she's been on the receiving end of an electric spear before, she knows what she's talking about. In that moment, she's almost definitively certain that whatever the Winter Soldier is, he's not a person who's here because he's made any kind of choice.

The world just got more complicated. Again. Because why wouldn't it?

Cassie doesn't have time to ponder or share her new insight though, because at that moment she notices that they're still stopped in the middle of a lane on a busy highway with cars streaming all around them. More importantly, one of the other vehicles in their lane isn't swerving at all. This is a problem. Cassie is just going to classify it like that because she doesn't know what else to call a situation involving a truck bearing down on them at sixty miles per hour.

She opens her mouth to shout a warning but she's too late, and the truck slams in to them, crushing in the back of their vehicle. The momentum of the truck behind them bears the car forwards straight in to the Winter Soldier. Sam tries desperately to swerve away from the weight of the truck behind them but there's nothing he can do and in moments they'll be between a metaphorical rock and hard place.

At the last moment, the Winter Soldier launches himself up, flipping high over the front of their car. Cassie isn't sure if that's better or worse. On the one hand, they don't have a cyborg assassin coming through their windshield. On the other hand, said cyborg assassin is now behind them, squarely in their blindspot, and now they have no idea where he is or what he might be doing.

When a metal arm comes shooting through the sunroom and yanks the steering wheel clean out of the dashboard, Cassie settles on worse. Definitely worse.

However, Cassie isn't the lay down and die type. Especially on a day when she isn't carrying drachma or any other form of money she can use to bribe Charon the ferryman to take her over the River Styx. That particular river goddess also happens to have it out for Cassie and her siblings given the fact that Apollo happened to royally piss her off a few years ago.

Besides, Cassie can't remember who exactly makes up the panel of judgement these days, and that actually matters more than you might think when you're a demigod. For example, if King Minos is on the jury she's screwed. But, if Shakespeare's judging Cassie thinks she probably has a decent shot at a fair trial. It helps when your older brother is judging your case. Even if it's only your half-brother and your birthdays are four centuries apart.

The point is, Cassie is very unprepared to die today, so she'll have to take action. It seems obvious that the first step will be to figure out a way to get out of this car. Preferably, to a spot with some decent cover.

She's just trying to figure out how to do it when Steve's arm wraps around her waist and yanks her up over the seat divider and in to his chest. Natasha is pinned to his other side and he's got his shield braced between them and the passenger door. A moment later Sam is yanked sideways on top of her and Cassie feels all of the air leave her lungs at the impact.

"Hold on!" Steve shouts. Cassie can feel the muscles of his chest coil underneath her and she realizes he's about to throw his body weight against the door to break it open. Cassie realizes that and wraps one hand around his shoulder in a grip that would have broken bone on a normal person. Her other hand she snakes free from their mass of limbs and holds out with her palm against the door, pushing a concussive sound wave against it at the same time Steve rams forward.

The magic comes more easily than it might any other time thanks to the wave of adrenaline flooding through her body. It also helps that Cassie's not actually creating a wave. The amount of noise taking place in the air around her makes that unnecessary. What she's actually doing is redirecting a few existing waves. In simple terms, it's the difference between aiming a hose, and digging a well.

The door gives out against her and Steve's combined efforts and the four of them are thrown several yards, skidding along the pavement with only a sheet of metal between them and unforgiving asphalt. The experience reminds Cassie both of sledding (which she's never done) and of riding cross country on the back of a wild boar (which she has).

Sam rolls away first and the absence of his weight let's Cassie and Natasha spring to their feet. Verticality allows them all to see that the Winer Soldier is now approaching them with a really just absurdly large gun. Like really the size of the weapon is just excessive. Surely a smaller one would have worked just as well? Apparently not.

Steve to his credit reacts incredibly quickly and shoves Natasha sideways so that she's out of the line of fire. He moves towards Cassie to do the same but given the scope and probable range of the weapon their enemy has Cassie knows he won't have time.

To her back and side is the highway guardrail. Steve is on her other side and the Winter Soldier is advancing from the front. Below her feet is solid concrete leaving only one direction left for her to travel. Up.

Just as the Winter Soldier fires Cassie launches her entire body towards the sky, putting every ounce of power she can in to the movement. The height she reaches is impressive, even by demigod standards and the ground rapidly falls away beneath her. From her brief vantage point reveals that Sam and Natasha have taken cover positions behind separate cars. Steve seems to have been thrown clear by the blast of the excessively large weapon which Cassie can now identify as an RPG.

Her landing sight is compromised by a swerving truck and Cassie is forced to land on top of it. The good news about that is that she doesn't fall quite as far. The bad news is that she's unprepared for the impact and doesn't have quite enough time to distribute her weight and land correctly. She rolls as best she can and manages not to slap over the edge of the truck. It's a near thing though and the vehicle is still swerving crazily. The thing begins to tip and Cassie is forced to either throw herself free or be crushed by several tons of rolling steel and cargo.

The second harsh landing in so many minutes forces Cassie to take cover for a moment so that the sunlight can heal the torn cartilage and reverse the sprain in her knees and ankles. She's managed to land behind a flipped car which will provide some decent cover against most arms fire. That's a very good thing because her ears are picking up the sound of at least four machine guns being fired.

Apparently the Winter Soldier had brought back up. Of course he had. Why wouldn't he really?

She uses the time she needs to heal to try to come up with a game plan. She has her bow and quiver but she has to admit she doesn't particularly like the odds of her favored weapon against multiple machine guns and an RPG. Her armor and medical supplies are still in her backpack which has miraculously managed to stay on her back. Her armor is high-grade but she's never tested it against this kind of artillery and this doesn't feel like the best moment to try.

Natasha is up and moving, launching herself across several lanes of swerving traffic and over the side of the overpass. Cassie trusts she'll land on her feet without issue simply because Nat isn't suicidal so she wouldn't rick the jump if she didn't have a plan. Sam is sill pinned down nearly twenty feet away and Cassie can't see Steve from her position.

The Winter Soldier positions himself at the railing and swaps out his RPG for a specially modified sniper rifle. He aims it and scans the ground below with a precision that makes Cassie nervous. The other enemy combatants arrange themselves in a ring facing outwards to serve as defensive cover while the Soldier takes his shots. Several rounds rain down around her and Cassie forces herself to remain calm and count the period between deluges. The time it takes the men to reload.

While she counts, she fishes a flask of Nectar out of her bag and takes a careful sip. The godly drink burns through her, finalizing the healing in her legs, sharpening her senses, and leaving the taste of cinnamon and chocolate in her mouth. That'll have to be enough for whatever she does next.

A new shower of bullets peppers the metal body work of the car she's using for cover and Cassie casts about her, scrambling for anything that she can use as a weapon. Her bow won't be the most effective n this situation and she doesn't have a knife ready. She can't get to a gun right now so it'll have to be something else.

Right now her greatest advantage is the sun bearing down on them all from above, charging Cassie's abilities to full potency as the beams soak in to every inch of exposed skin. The heat also pours back up from the black pavement Cassie's sitting on from the light the asphalts absorbed throughout the day. The sunshine is also reflected all around, bouncing and multiplying off of every fragment of glass and broken mirror.

Cassie smiles grimly. This... this is something she can use.

The bullets pause again and Cassie acts immediately. Her window is here, she probably won't get another, and this one is closing rather quickly. What she does next also breaks approximately all of the top rules of demigoddom. These rules include: Try not to do things that increase your odds of dying. Don't use your powers against mortals. Don't draw attention to the fact that you are anything more than normal around mortals.

Yeah.

Cassie examines those rules. She admires them appreciatively. Then she packs them up in a box with some nice bubble wrap and tissue paper. The box is then sent to a far away storage facility Cassie doesn't have the address to via snail mail.

Those rules don't matter when balanced against the lives of herself, her friends, and all of the innocent mortals who will die here on this bridge if the Winter Soldier and his team are permitted to keep firing the way they have been. As far as Cassie is concerned, these people are the enemy. Men who will open fire on innocent civilians with no regard for the fact that they might kill someone other than their target, who relish in violence, who kill because somehow they enjoy it are just as monstrous as any beast from Tartarus in her book.

Once Cassie's on her feet she figures she has moments to do something before she's hit with enough bullets to turn her in to swiss cheese. She holds her hand out, palm up and focuses a beam of light in to the face of one of the enemy. Once he's hit the ground she flips her hand sideways and redirects the beam in to the eyes of his friend. They're both out, blinded and burned, possibly permanently.

Two down.

The other three start to realize that she's the cause of the incapacitation that has claimed their team members and begin to train their weapons on her. She uses the moment they take to aim to dive for new cover and lands in a crouch. A piece of glass slices the skin in her hand and Cassie looks down just as a literal spark flickers across the gash, stitching it shut as it goes.

The sight of the spark in conjunction with the sight of a flipped fuel truck maybe thirty feet away triggers her next idea. She's not as gifted with machinery as Leo is, and she doesn't have the same level of smarts that Annabeth does, but even she knows that fuel and most other chemicals are pretty highly flammable if they're exposed to enough heat. Heat is something Cassie can make happen.

She extends her arm with her palm held rigidly in the direction of the fuel that's already spilled out on to the road. Beams of sunshine seam to coalesce and focus, bending to obey her will, creating a high intensity beam. Her mind flashes back to a long ago lesson with Chiron during which her teacher had shown her how to set a piece of black paper on fire by focusing the sun in one spot using a magnifying glass.

Cassie fixes her mind on the memory now. She imagines her own palm as the lens and the fuel as the piece of paper. Heat builds through her fingers and spreads up her hand and through the rest of her arm. A half glance down reveals that her very veins have begun to glow. The heat builds and builds to such an intensity that Cassie thinks it either has to break or make her combust.

Then she feels the built up intensity roll down her arm like a wave, exploding out through her palm and launching at the overturned fuel truck like a missile of light. It strikes it's target perfectly. Cassie is a child of Apollo after all. When she wants to hit something, she doesn't generally miss.

The explosion the truck makes is loud enough and close enough that Cassie flattens herself to the ground and covers her head with her arms. A glance over at Sam reveals that he's done the same, reacting like a trained soldier. The enemies were closer, and not quite so lucky. One is thrown far away by the blast and slams hard in to the ground without getting back up. The remaining two are engulfed in a huge ball of flame.

Cassie doesn't know if what she's done is fatal. At the moment she isn't sure she cares. Maybe it'll hit her later and she'll feel guilt. Right now she's reacting instinctively to being under attack. Combat doesn't have many halfway options. Either you hit as hard as you can, or you don't. It just so happens that Cassie can hit differently than most people can.

The Winter Soldier doesn't turn to attack which Cassie had been worried about. Apparently she and Sam aren't high on his target list. They're just in the way between him and his target.

Sam and Cassie both leap forwards and Sam takes down the final remaining guard with military precision and confiscates his rifle. He loads and relies the weapon, shifting the scope to his preferences. Cassie is suddenly very glad that Steve and Natasha had decided to trust this man.

Cassie performs a three-sixty spin to reassess the situation. Between her and Sam they've cleared the overpass and gained the technical advantage of the higher ground. From here they have a good view of the scene unfolding below them. They also both have clear lines of sight and the chance that they might hit someone on their side while they try to help is minimized. Of course, that particular advantage is helped by the fact that their side only has two other people on it.

Is that still an advantage?

Cassie is willing to mark the issue TBD until she sees how this plays out.

Given that the whole things ends with them all arrested but alive, Cassie's willing to call it a draw. In the "That Sucked" column she has the fact that they're all arrested, Natasha might be bleeding out three feet away and Cassie's handcuffed so she can't help, and whatever Steve saw when the Winter Soldier's mask was removed has him seriously shaken. The mental pain he is in almost screams at her. It doesn't help that they're so cramped in the back of their prison truck that her side is actually crushed against his. Physical proximity to that much pain mental or otherwise isn't something she can ignore.

However, she also has a "Could Be Worse Column." There she has the fact that she can get out of her handcuffs fairly easily, her back pack is within a yard of her, and not once during the process of being taken captive did anyone take her picture, fingerprints, or name. Also, there was the fact that they were indeed alive.

See this was where a pessimist would add a very grim _for now._ Cassie sees that avenue and chooses not to go there.

"It was him," Steve is saying, having explained that the Winter Soldier is somehow also his long presumed dead childhood best friend Bucky Barnes. "He looked right at me, and he didn't even know me." The grief in his voice is palpable and Cassie wishes that her hands were free, or that she could come up with the right words to provide some comfort.

"How is that even possible?" Sam asks. "That was like seventy years ago."

Well, Cassie can think of a few theoretical ways, but they all involve the doors of death and godly interference. Neither of those avenues would have included brain washing, cognitive reconditioning, and metal prosthetic limbs. Okay actually maybe they would have. What had happened to Jason and Percy at Hera's hands four years ago was actually pretty close. However, the gods tended to avoid interfering, and generally steered clear of Nazis.

Steve thankfully has a different explanation. "Zola," he says bitterly, naming the Hydra scientist who designed the Insight targeting algorithm. "Bucky's whole unit was captured in '43. Zola experimented on them. Whatever he did must have helped Bucky survive the fall." Steve looks up, a look of dawning horror on his face. "Zola must have found him."

"None of that's your fault Steve," Natasha says from her seat next to Sam. Her words are starting to slur a little and she sounds exhausted. Cassie maps her vitals with mounting concern and commits her attention to escaping her handcuffs.

Steve doesn't seem to believe her. He looks down at the floor and says "even when I had nothing I had Bucky." His voice is quiet but it fills the entire space. Cassie is good at discerning vocalized emotion, and Steve's may as well be shouting his grief in to her ear. Below that though, Cassie can feel his anger. It's like a cold multi-edged weapon directed at Hydra, Bucky, SHIELD, and most plainly himself. It's a weapon with no safe edge to grasp but Cassie thinks that someone will have to eventually.

She wonders who it will be.

Just then Sam seems to realize Natasha's condition. "We need to get a doctor here," he says urgently, addressing one of the two armed guards in the back of the truck with them. "If we don't get pressure on that she's gonna bleed out here in the back of the truck."

What happens next is something Cassie doesn't have an immediate explanation for. One of the guards knocks out the other one with what looks to Cassie like a high powered taser. Then they remove their helmet with a relived exhalation and Cassie can just recognize the woman as Agent Hill, the one who had retrieved Nick Fury from the hospital and helped him disappear. "That thing was squeezing my brain," she comments casually. Then her eyes land on Sam and Cassie. "Who are you people?"

"I'm air support," Sam says. He gestured his head towards Cassie. "Pretty sure she's either medical or some kind of heavy hitter."

Cassie lifts a hand and waves. "Hi," she says. The metal loop of her handcuffs is still around the wrist of the hand she waved with and it jingles some with the movement. Her other hand is free but she had to dislocate her thumb to get the cuffs off and she hasn't popped the joint back in yet. "I'm Cassie, we met at the hospital. I helped operate on your boss."

Hill nods once in recognition. "Right."

Cassie gives her a benign smile as she pops her thumb back in to place and pulls her other hand free, tossing the cuffs in to the corner. Once she's free she moves across the van to Natasha and inspects the gun shot wound. It's a clean entry and exit and the bullet doesn't seem to have had the time to fragment before impact so that's good. It also managed to hit a fairly major blood supply and probably hurts like hell which is less good.

"Can you do anything about that?" Steve asks her as Hill undoes his and Sam's handcuffs with a complicated looking pass key. Cassie looks at the restraints and is glad hers were just standard metal. Sometimes being underestimated is handy.

She nods once in answer to his question. "I can heal it," she confirms. "But the angle is off. It won't work for what I'll have to do." She looks over at Hill. "Get her out of these?" Hill complies and Cassie takes a steadying breath, lining her hand up over the injury.

"What are you going to do?" Hill demands. Sam is holding her back pack out to her, having retrieved it from where the other guard had stashed it away. Cassie takes it from him but puts it over her shoulder unopened. Steve says and does nothing, just watches her.

"Heal her," Cassie says tersely. "It's going to hurt," she warns Natasha because it seems like a crucial detail to have. "But it's the fastest way and we don't have a lot of time." With that she lays her palm over the injury and does something she doesn't do very often, even when she's healing. She hums a hymn, a hymn in honor of her father, asking for his help. Immediately Cassie's palm warms, the temperature in the car goes up by at least five degrees and Natasha grunts in pain as the skin and muscle begins to knit back together.

When it's done Cassie sits back, panting. She's expended a lot of magical force today and healing a major injury on someone else is never easy. It's easier to destroy than it is to create or fix. Besides, they're inside a dark van with no sunlight which makes godly power harder for Cassie to access. Natasha looks dazed and on the edge of sleep but the wound is closed and Cassie knows that the internal damage has been repaired.

Cassie sighs as Sam and Hill move to check on Natasha. "She's okay," Cassie tells them. "Just sleeping. Right now I'm not strong enough to heal the blood loss. Her body needs time to recharge." Actually, Cassie wouldn't say 'no' to a nice trip to the land of the unconscious right now herself.

Natasha stays awake long enough for them to implement Hill's back up plan and switch vehicles. The dark van they get in to has very slightly nicer seating and they aren't handcuffed to anything which Cassie considers improvement. The transfer, covert and brief as it is also gets her enough sunlight for her previously dislocated thumb to fully pop back in to place and for the joint to repair.

They drive for maybe twenty minutes or so before the van stops and they all climb out. Natasha looks better if a little too pale and exhausted. Steve helps her out of the van with Sam following a hand hovering at Nat's side to catch her in case she passes out. Cassie is the last one out and is unashamed to admit that her legs practically collapse after the first step and she's damn close to face planting. She needs food, sleep, water, and possibly an ambrosia square before she fights or heals anyone or anything else.

Steve catches her before she can fall with his hands around her waist. With his palms spread they cover most of her ribcage, creating a warm pressure through her shirt. "Thanks," she murmurs. She looks up at him and the look on his face is one of concern. Cassie kind of wants to reach up and pat his cheek and tell him not to waste time worrying about her but they don't have time before Hill shepherds them in to the structure through a side entrance.

Her first impression of the space is that everything is dark and dingy and not just slightly damp. The second thing she realizes is that the structure is staffed. A man with grey hair and classes is running towards him and Cassie clarifies him as a doctor type. "What have we got?" he asks Hill.

"Healed through and through GSW," Hill reports. "Fixed it on the way here but she lost a lot of blood before that. Probably a pint."

"Maybe two," Sam chips in.

The doctor nods and gestures to Natasha who is still visibly gaunt and blood spattered. "I'll take her."

"Cassie too," Steve says. He'd stuck close by since they were brought inside and at this point his right arm has nearly wrapped around her waist. Cassie's a little too far out of it to check but she's pretty sure he's supporting the majority of her weight.

She opens her mouth to protest on principle but Hill is still forging ahead of them at a pace somewhere between a walk and a run. "They'll want to see him first."

Gears start to turn in Cassie's head as she puts the pieces together. Someone with a strategic mind arranged and prepared to execute their extraction. That someone had thought far enough ahead to arrange a safe house fully stocked with trained medical personnel. By the time Hill pushes aside a thick plastic curtain, Cassie isn't at all surprised to see Nick Fury behind it, lying in a hospital bed, eyepatch firmly in place.

The man stares them all down, taking them in almost impassively. Then in an almost bored voice he drawls out "Well it's about damn time."

After a moment of stunned silence Natasha allows herself to be steered in to a seat nearby as the doctor they had encountered on their way in starts a blood transfusion. The two of them have the only chairs in the vicinity so Cassie stays standing. She doesn't think Fury would appreciate it if she sat on the end of his hospital bed and the floor in here is as suspiciously damp as it is everywhere else.

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collar bone," Fury lists. "Perforated liver-"

"You forgot the level three concussion," Cassie points out, arms crossed over her chest. "I'm betting that's one mother of a headache."

Fury regards her for a moment with his single working eye and then nods. The man hadn't seemed at all surprised or taken aback by her presence but Cassie thinks it's just possible that she's the one thing in the room that he hand't been predicting. Nick Fury is just exceedingly calm and a very good liar.

The doctor working on Natasha chips in at that point. "Don't forget your collapsed lung."

Well... Cassie hadn't been going to bring it up. Everything else was kind of abuse enough without throwing in another malfunctioning major organ. "Let's not forget that," Fury says dryly. Personally, Cassie would be impressed if he _could_ forget that. There's playing through the pain and then there's lung collapse. The two things do not belong in the same category. "Otherwise I'm good."

"They cut you open," Natasha protests. "Your heart stopped."

"No it didn't," Cassie says. "It slowed down, almost less than one beat per minute but it didn't stop." She looks at Fury with an praising frown. "What chemical did you use exactly?" she asks. "It's been bugging me. Some kind of tetrodotoxin?"

Hill, Natasha, and Steve are all looking at her with varying degrees of shock in their expressions. "You knew?" Hill splutters. "How-"

"I was in the operating room," Cassie says with a shrug. "I know when my patients die and he wasn't dead. Very very close yeah. But not actually ya know," she makes a chopping motion across her throat. "I figured you must have moved him from the morgue. Hospitals guard everything except the dead bodies. But he had to make it look close enough to fool a heart monitor," she continues. "A few chemicals mimic death but none of them are exactly safe." She levels her gaze at Fury. "So? What was it?"

He regards her steadily with a renewed interest. "Tetrodotoxin B," he says. "Slows the pulse to one beat a minute. Banner developed it for stress." Cassie nods. That would explain why she's never heard of the particular compound before. "Didn't work so great for him," Fury continues. "But we found uses for it."

"Why all the secrecy?" Steve asks. "Why not just tell us." His blue eyes settle on her and Cassie reads the message there. _'Why didn't **you** tell **me**_.'

It's Hill who answers though. "The attempt on the directors life had to look successful."

Fury looks like he would shrug if it didn't hurt so much. "They can't kill you if you're already dead. 'Sides I wasn't sure who to trust."

Cassie supposes there's some solid logic to that and she takes the silence after the remark as her opportunity to speak. "I didn't know what was going on when it happened," she says quietly, flicking her eyes towards Steve. "All I knew was that someone had broken in to your apartment and killed a friend of yours. Then when he faked his own death I figured the reason was wrapped up in whatever was going on, and I wanted to know what it was."

"Curiosity killed the cat," Fury says neutrally from his bed. Cassie just shrugs. She's told the truth as best she can for now. Her explanation on everything for Steve later will now just have to include another chapter if he's angry that she's kept this to herself.

The break they take before they get down to planning is exactly as long as it takes for Natasha to finish her blood transfusion, Fury to get another round of meds, and for them all to eat something. Cassie isn't sure what she's presented can actually be called food, so lacking is it in anything resembling flavor, but she chews and swallows it anyway. Right now food is nothing more than fuel to keep going. She'd love to be able to squeeze in a nap, even twenty minutes would be better than nothing, but it doesn't seem likely she'll be getting it.

Hill and Fury lay out their mission and their plan. They explain how they'll have to link and take down the carriers before Insight's programming starts systematically killing off everyone that SHIELD or Hydra has ever identified as different or threatening. As someone who can be classified as both different and threatening to SHIELD and or Hydra, Cassie has a personal issue with that.

Besides, genocide is ya know. Bad. Generally speaking.

Steve is quiet through the whole thing until Fury mentions trying to salvage some of what's left of SHIELD. Then he shuts down the conversation completely. "SHIELD, Hydra," he insists, cutting off Fury's protests. "It all goes." There's no arguing with him and Cassie briefly wonders how this coldly determined man occupies the same being as the man who had blushed and stumbled over asking her out for coffee. Apparently she's discovered the cross-section between what makes Captain America feel determined to do the right thing no matter the costs, and what just seriously pisses off Steve Rogers.

It's a lethal combination and at this point Steve is less moveable than a really stubborn boulder. The fact that Fury starts looking between them all for backup isn't terribly surprising. What is surprising is that Hill is the first person to speak out in Steve's favor. "He's right," she says simply.

Natasha simply sits back with her arms crossed over her chest. When it's Sam's turn to answer he just shrugs with a shake of his head. "Hey don't look at me," he says gesturing at Steve. "I do what he does just slower."

Cassie sits forwards. "Well I'm in," she says. "From everything you've said this sounds like it could get ugly. People are going to get hurt. You'll need medical. Besides," she gives Steve a small smile. "I have a coffee date to get to. It would suck if I was the only one alive to make it."

Fury lets out a long sigh. "Well," he says. Then he makes eye contact with Steve. "It looks like you're giving the orders Captain."

The only reaction Steve makes is to slightly tighten his jaw. He shifts his shoulders and it's like he's physically taking on the weight of command, not just in terms of technicality. Cassie's seen what that weight does to people, she's even felt it personally. She's seen it on Percy, Jason, Annabeth, Reyna, and Frank and she's born it before. She knows the scars it leaves and the way it can crush a person.

It's that knowledge that makes Cassie follow Steve when he goes outside to the top of the dam. The fact that it is a dam makes her smile, makes her think about Thalia's laugh and Percy's smile, and Zoe's blatant confusion. Of course, that incident had also involved being attacked by skeleton soldiers in the cafeteria and fighting back with burritos before being whisked away by living bronze statues.

Okay so her life is weird.

She makes sure to make noise as she walks so that Steve won't be surprised. He seems to be deep in thought so Cassie doesn't push him to talk just yet. She just sits perched on the edge of the railing over the water, her feet don't quite touch the ground and she fights the urge to kick them back and forth like a little kid.

"My mom died when I was twenty," he says eventually. "I buried her next to my dad. We didn't have any money for a big funeral so it was just me and the local priest." Cassie turns to face him and waits for him to keep going. Steve shrugs. "I haven't visited. Since waking up in this weird fake room of Fury's I haven't gone."

Cassie shifts slightly, but doesn't really go to close the distance between them. "I cremated my mom," she says. "We were living in Florida at the time so I took her ashes out in a boat and put them in the ocean." She shrugs. "I didn't have much of a funeral for her either. It was just me. My grandmother was already dead so..." she doesn't know how to finish so she just lets herself trail off.

"Did doing something make you feel better?" he asks, looking over at her. His eyes are huge, blue, and compelling and Cassie feels like she hats answer honestly.

She shakes her head. "No," she says. "No not really. I was eight, and alone, and my mom was dead. The only thing that helps something like that is time to grieve, and I didn't get that for a while."

Steve tips his head, regarding her. "How long?" he asks.

At that Cassie really does knock her feet together. "Years," she says finally.

Steve nods. "Bucky offered to let me come stay with him and his family after her funeral," he says. It's a change of subject but Cassie rolls with it. "I told him I could get by on my own," Steve remembers. "He said-" he cuts himself off and then forges ahead. "He said that just because I could, it didn't mean I always had to. He said he was with me until the end of the line."

When he meets her eyes his look clouded over with emotion that might just spill over and this time Cassie doesn't check her impulse to reach out. She slides along the railing until she's almost directly in front of him and takes one of his hands between both of hers. His fingers are warm and his hand is clenched in a rigid claw. Keeping the pressure light but firm, Cassie rubs against the tensed muscles, trying to relax them.

A moment later Steve adjusts, shaking his hand free and placing it on the far side of her. His knuckles are white against the railing and Cassie shifts her hands to lay over his, wrapping her fingers over his wrists. She can't lean back because the only thing behind her is the railing, and Steve fills all other space. She's not really stuck, she can shift sideways and away, Steve's left her that option. She doesn't want to take it.

"We're not there yet," Steve says lowly. His voice is rough and there's an almost strained intensity to his words. It's like he's desperate willing her to understand what he's telling her but isn't sure how to articulate it. "I thought we'd passed it but we haven't. He's alive and it turns out the end of the line hasn't happened and I can't-"

"Shhh..." Cassie says softly, rubbing her thumbs in small sweeps over the backs of his hands. She doesn't say that it's okay. It's not. Maybe right now nothing is. Moving slowly, she moves one hand carefully up his arm and behind his neck. She allows her thumb to continue it's light back and forth motion and applies a bit more pressure when Steve begins to lean further in to her touch.

His head tips gradually sideways in to her hand until his jaw and cheek are pressed against her palm and she's bearing the weight of his head. She leans forwards a little more and Steve inclines his head until their foreheads are touching. A few moments later Cassie realizes that she's been humming. It's a lullaby she hasn't thought about for a long time, not since her youngest brother Austin had first arrived at camp. He'd been homesick and six years younger than her and Cassie had hummed the song to get him to sleep. To this day she isn't sure where or when she first heard it.

"We'll do what we have to do," Cassie tells him quietly when words seem like they might be necessary again. "Whatever that turns out to be. And if your friend is still alive then.." she waits until he's pulled his head back and is making eye contact with her. He needs to know that she means what she says and she knows not everyone hears emotion and truth the way that she does. For some people, they have to see to believe. "If your friend is alive then getting him back is one of the things we have to do."

Steve closes his eyes and swallows and rests his head back against her forehead. The contact lasts for one heartbeat, then two. "Okay," he says. He nods and says again more strongly. "Okay." Then he straightens and looks down at her. "Then that's what we have to do."

Cassie regards him for a moment, taking in the look on his face. Something has shifted there. He's completely serious and now he's committed. It's possible Cassie's started a fire she won't be able to put out. Then she nods once. That's all she needs to do.

Then she slides off the railing. It brings her closer to Steve without either of them taking a step and he doesn't back up. She reaches her hands up to his shoulders and levers herself up on to her tip toes, pressing a kiss against his cheek. Steve bends obligingly to help meet her lack of height, extending the contact. A shuddery breath stirs her hair against the back of her neck and sends a shiver down her spine as Steve exhales.

A moment later her toes begin to protest and Cassie has to drop back on to the flats of her feet. One of Steve's hands has migrated from the railing to cradle her spine and it serves as a barrier between her back and the railing. "We're going to have to have a conversation soon," he tells her. His eyes are wide and a deep, dark, blue.

"I know," Cassie tells him as she hears the sound of the door to the top of the dam opens. The sound of the tread, the fact that the tread makes a sound _at all,_ tells her that it's Sam who's here. Chances are he's not there to talk to her. "But not right now. Later," she inclines her head in the direction Sam is coming from. "I think Sam might have something he wants to say."

Steve straightens up the rest of the way with a sigh that's so small she can barely see it. His posture shifts, tensing and his hand falls away from her spine. The lack of heat is noticeable and Cassie wishes the universe wasn't quite so hell bent on interrupting her life. She still manages to offer Steve a small smile and flips her braid back over her shoulder. "I'll leave you two to talk."

She ducks away and offers Sam a nod in acknowledgement as she passes. He returns the gesture, summing her up with new eyes. It doesn't take a genius to know that he views her differently after seeing her blow up that truck yesterday. It's possible he isn't even completely sure what she saw being a mortal and all. What he saw will depend on how much of the sight he might or might not have.

As the day and their possibly suicidal plan progresses Cassie doesn't see much of Steve. To be fair, they're both a little busy. He's got a full schedule what with robbing the Smithsonian, infiltrating the Trisk, and fighting his way on to the carriers. Oh, and avoiding death via brainwashed best friend turned killer soviet assassin. For her part, Cassie is more than occupied treating the waves of wounded who begin to arrive at the aid station she establishes with the ambulances she called for the second Steve's announcement stops echoing over the PA system.

He makes a good speech. It's damn compelling and if Cassie hadn't already been team SHIELD she would have been after that.

However, pretty words don't make the battles they lead to any less bloody.

The injured arrive and Cassie does her best to treat them as efficiently as possible. She doesn't use magic for all but the most hopeless of cases and that's a good thing because there are far too many witnesses here. She doesn't do anything drastic like repairing broken limbs or reattaching amputation, but once or twice she uses her abilities to manage bleeding, check vitals, and generally keep people alive.

Time passes, only barely trackable for Cassie because of the movement of the sun across the sky. Her hands are bloody and she has no idea what might have ended up on her clothes. She also doesn't have an earpiece (she couldn't concentrate with it in) so the only way she can track the progress of the battle is through the booms and explosions coming from the Trisk. She knows when the carriers fall, and she assumes that that might be the end of it. Hopefully the flood of injuries will be slowing soon and Cassie will be able to seek out Sam, Steve, and Natasha to make sure that they're still alright.

Well okay alright might not be exactly accurate.

In this case Cassie is willing to accept "passably intact".

Just not dead, alright?

That's all she wants.

The sudden cold chill running down her back like a bucket of ice water tells her she might not get what she wants. When Cassie cares about people she can normally tell when they've been injured or killed. That propensity increases with proximity and everyone she's currently worried about is less than a mile away.

The chill intensifies, persisting with every passing second, digging in to her like claws. The cold starts to feel like ice shards being driven in beneath her skin and the pain is almost enough to cripple her. Soon Cassie can't take it anymore and she once more allows herself to dissolve in to a beam of light with no real destination in mind. She'll just have to trust that the icy pain radiating under her skin will help guide her towards wherever she needs to be.

Besides, at this point she's almost willing to pray to her father if letting the sun absorb in to the spaces between her cells will help melt the ice out of her blood.

When Cassie solidifies again she's standing on a muddy riverbank beside the Potomac. In the distance she can see the smoking remains of a carrier floating in the river. Up close, she sees the Winter Soldier, standing waist deep in water. He's completely unarmed, and in his metal hand he's gripping the shoulder strap of an old fashioned blue and red uniform.

He's unmasked, staring at Cassie with an unreadable expression. His eyes are wide and blue and very very human. He doesn't look at all surprised by Cassie's sudden appearance and seems to scan her for weapons, assessing her completely within seconds.

Cassie holds her body completely still in a way that only a girl who has spent time being hunted and assessed by predators possibly can. Eventually, the Soldier must conclude that despite her surprise entrance on to the scene, she doesn't pose an immediate threat because he begins to approach. He strides through the water, apparently not caring about all of the muck and pollutants in the Potomac.

Cassie's spent long enough around Percy to know all about it.

More than she wanted to actually.

Don't ask Percy about balanced water ecosystems.

Steve is being dragged along behind the Winter Soldier and seems to be unconscious. Cassie sees that his head is lolling to the side and that his face is bloody. The chill in her body has intensified to a singular point and Cassie realizes that whatever has happened here, Steve must be pretty badly hurt.

And apparently the Winter Soldier is playing the gallant rescuer.

The Soldier reaches the riverbank and pulls Steve up and out after him. Then he dumps Steve down in front of her and looks up at her without a word. Then Cassie decides that it doesn't matter. If he was going to kill her he would have done it already.

She drops to her knees in the mud and examines the blood running down Steve's face. She places her hands on his head, fanning her fingers and cradling his head. Her senses scan over his body and she winces. He's not in good shape. There's a fracture in his skull, a concussion, a break in his collar bone, four shattered ribs in his chest, and enough water in his lungs to fill a pool. His pulse is slow and ragged and dangerously close to stopping.

Cassie doesn't even hesitate before sending a pulse of magic through her fingers and in to his skull. His mouth falls open and a stream of water and evaporated mist pours outwards as her magic clears Steve's lungs. The cut near his eye seals itself and through her powers Cassie knows that two chipped teeth have reformed in his gums as the skull fracture knits back together.

She sends a second pulse of magic forwards in to his chest and literally feels his heart jump under her hands as her power makes contact with the bruised internal organs. A new wave of fractures and breaks shift to set themselves correctly. They don't heal all the way though and Cassie knows it's because she's too tired to do anything more. Her magic has tapped out and Steve's own healing abilities will have to do the rest.

The healing has gone as far as it can and Cassie scans him with her magic to record his vitals again. She sits back with a sigh of relief and shifts Steve's still tender cranium in to her lap. Her fingers flicker through his hair, trying to comb out the mud and leaving streaks of blood in her wake. A glance at her hands reveal that they're covered in blood. With a start she realizes that she doesn't know whose it is. She probably should have worn gloves but she hadn't had time.

Then she looks up.

The Winter Soldier is still standing there, as still as a statue, stating down at her. His eyes go from her muddy face, to her bloody hands, to Steve's face, and then down to his chest. Cassie realizes a moment later that he's actually counting breaths. He dragged Steve from the river and now he's scanning his vitals. Whatever happened here, this man is somehow invested in keeping Steve alive.

Given that he tried to kill them all less than twenty-four hours ago, that's something like a serious attitude change.

When Barnes notes that Cassie's looking at him he gives a curt nod and spins on his heel. His movement is soundless, and eerily like a ghost. Cassie has met ghosts before. She can't say she's liked most of them very much.

"He'll want to look for you," Cassie blurts out. She isn't sure why she says it, but if Barnes has recognized his best friend enough to remember that Steve _is_ his best friend, then maybe there's something worth saying. Barnes freezes at the sound of her voice, and slowly turns back to face her. His face is still blank but he hasn't disappeared yet so Cassie keeps speaking. "I'm going to help him," she says. "I said I would."

One of Barnes' eyebrows goes up almost imperceptibly. It's the first human reaction Cassie has ever seen from this man and she latch on to it. She scans this change in expression and reads it carefully. His eyes flick from her to Steve again and then looks towards the road as a knew ambulance screams by. Then he looks back at her.

Cassie suddenly realizes that he's asking if he can go. He's asking permission. Her heart breaks a little. This man would probably be able to kill er easily but he's so used to taking orders that instead he's asking for new orders.

She realizes that he's been living by other people's wills for too long. She won't subject him to hers. "He'll need to heal," Cassie tells him. "With this many injuries it'll probably take at least a week." She holds his eyes the entire time as she speaks. "That's how long you get to vanish if you want to before we start looking. I suggest you use the time to figure some things out. Do what you want. But be ready for us to find you eventually. Steve's missed you for too long to let you go."

Barnes stares at her for a moment and then gives her a sharp nod. He's heard her terms and found them acceptable. He turns to leave again and then Cassie remembers something. "There's a wall on you at the Smithsonian," she states. "Maybe you should start there."

A moment passes in a heartbeat and Barnes turns to face her again. Then he does something that honestly shocks her. He comes to military attention, and snaps her a crisp, formal salute.

She blinks.

When her eyes open again, Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, is gone.

It's just her with blood on her hands, and Steve's head in her lap.

 **A/N: So what do you think? The next chapter is finally going to involve the rest of Cassie's explanation. Shits about to get seriously complicated for all of them. That should be fun right? Review for me! Tell me what you thought! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: The nothing I'm paid for this is so nothing it doesn't exist.**

So there are some serious downsides to being the one to drag a bloody and unconscious Captain America to an ambulance. For one thing, from a technical perspective it's like actually hard. Steve is two hundred and thirty pound of muscle spread out on a six-two frame. Cassie is about a hundred pounds soaked and five-two on a good day. Even with her augmented strength there are logistics at play here that just don't work very well.

The other downside is that Captain America just very publicly outed a terrorist group and burned an entire government agency. That combined with the exploding carriers and screaming ambulances has attracted some attention. Seriously _some_ attention.

Okay honestly it's the entire D.C press core plus some people who may have flown in from out of town. They're taking pictures and recording videos of literally anything they think might work for their network viewing statistics. Needless to say, Captain America beat to hell, muddy, and being dragged in for medical attention makes the list.

It's a horrendous crowd and also impossible to avoid.

Once Cassie crests the hill away from the riverbank she shouts for the paramedics to get their attention. Steve is heavy and she can't carry him any more. Well, physically it's possible that she could, but she shouldn't in front of the few million viewers on television. Outing herself as abnormal in front of Fury, Natasha, Sam, and Steve was bed enough. The rest of the world is staying in the dark for as long as she can possibly manage.

As it turns out, shouting "Captain America is bleeding over here!" will get the paramedics running. Seriously, it's like shouting about there being an explosive at the airport. Some people are trained to respond to key phrases, and Cassie knows which ones work on the medical community. "Bleeding" is one of them. When in the presence of Captain America, invoking him works to.

Two medics are with her in seconds. They take his vitals and Cassie rattles off all of the information she has. Then they load him in to the back of an ambulance and Cassie stares after the car as it leaves.

Then she gives herself a shake and goes back to the aid station.

She cares a lot about Steve, and if she were just a normal girl she'd have gotten in to the back of the ambulance with him and ridden to the hospital. However, Cassie has never been just a normal girl. She has always been a warrior, and then a healer first. Right now there are people who need her help, and Cassie can give it to them.

By the time Cassie is all but kicked out of the aid station by the trauma surgeons who have arrived on scene to supervise, the sun is completely hidden by the turn of the Earth. Normally Cassie would have argued and stayed longer to help no matter what anyone else said. However, after almost six hours of constant medical work on top of the events of the last forty-eight hours, she feels just about dead on her feet. A victim who goes by having suffered major blood loss has better coloring than she does.

That observation and the fuzziness that's been creeping in steadily at the edges of her vision are enough to get her moving. Catching a cab ends up being impossible because of all of the emergency vehicles screaming back and forth so instead of getting in to a car she ends up walking. She can't be completely certain which hospital Steve would have been taken to, but G.W seems like the most likely option because it's close and fairly easily secured. Besides, even if Steve isn't there Cassie is beginning to know her way around the place, so at the very least she knows where to find a couch she can crash on.

Just this once, the universe does her a solid and she has the right hospital. Cassie considers it a small solid as solids go, considering the fact that she walked for about an hour to have that solid pay off. Still, it could have been worse (she could have had the wrong hospital and had to walk more) so Cassie is willing to dish out a little credit. If a god steps up to claim credit she'll thank them too. Actually, she should probably send up a prayer to the gods anyway.

One more _thank you for the fact that I am yet to die horribly_ prayer for the record books.

She's almost definitely made too many of those.

When she arrives at the hospital she knows immediately that it's the right one because of all of the super un-covert security people stationed outside and around the entrances. They are all very clearly armed standing with the relaxed awareness Cassie associates with the highly trained. She's tired of pretending she doesn't see them so she just nods at one tiredly as she passes and makes her way to the reception desk.

Getting in is easier than she had thought it would be. She tells the woman working reception who she is, and who she's there to visit. After presenting both her license and student I.D and proving that she can rattle off her social security number she's allowed through with directions to the private room Steve is in. She can only assume that some helpful person, probably some combination of Sam and Hill, got her put on the permitted visitors list. Otherwise, she doubts she would have been able to get through the door without some kind of official government paperwork.

Even if she hadn't gotten directions, Cassie thinks she would have been able to find Steve's room eventually. All she has to do is follow the security guards. The ratio between them and patients shifts steadily as she moves towards the more private sector of the hospital until most of the actual rooms are unoccupied.

She finds Steve in a private room attached to a surprisingly large number of machines considering his vitals had been fairly stable when she had last seen him. Cassie supposes the hospital is just being careful. There might be worse press than having Captain America die on your watch, but Cassie's not completely certain what it would be. Burning a real live Uncle Sam at the stake?

Politeness still being a thing, Cassie knocks before she goes in. Steve looks like he's still unconscious but Sam is sitting in the chair next to his bed and he's awake. The sound of Marvin Gaye is playing from an iPod dock on the side table.

"Nice music choice," she comments, still standing against the door.

Sam gives her an easy grin at her words and pulls himself up to a standing position. "Thanks. You know I figured you might be by."

Cassie nods, moving further in to the room. "I guess I should say thank you. I assume it was you who put my name on the list up front?"

He shrugs, shaking his head. "Nah not really. I'm just a soldier I don't have that kind of pull. I just mentioned to Hill and Fury that given all you did this week to keep this one alive," he gestures to Steve. "You might want to be able to check in and see that he's still breathing."

"Thank you," Cassie says more fervently than she had a moment earlier.

Sam shrugs off her words for the most part, but she figures saying them is still important. He stretches his neck and shoulders before saying "He came out of it for a minute earlier but it didn't last long. I think he'll be okay though. In my experience once a guy can shit talk you he's officially past the problem stage."

That comment actually managed to make Cassie crack a tired smile. "What did he say to you?" she asks. "Would I get the joke?"

"i think I'll let him tell you," Sam says with a look that she can't quite define. "From what I've heard, the two of you are overdue for a talk." Cassie doesn't meet his eyes and Sam doesn't push but he does pat the chair he had been sitting in. "The chair isn't that comfortable but from the looks of things you'll take it any way. I have to go see a man about a shield."

With that he leaves the room and Cassie eyes the hard plastic chair doubtfully. On the one hand, this is hospital visitor's furniture and therefore designed to be just on the border of too uncomfortable to stand. It's her private opinion that the furniture is made that way on purpose to get people to leave quickly so that the staff won't have to work around any one. On the other hand, she's lost track of how long she's been standing for and at this point her options are the chair, the floor, or the bed with Steve.

The part of her that is a trained member of the medical profession knows that she absolutely definitely should sit in the hard plastic chair and wait for Steve to wake up there. The part of her that is a girl who basically hasn't slept for two days thinks that the tiny portion of the bed that Steve isn't occupying looks really tempting right now. Has she mentioned she's really freaking tired?

While she's still deliberating Steve shifts slightly with a wince and his eyes flutter open. His blue eyes seem a little blurry but he manages to focus on Cassie eventually. "Hey," he says. "You okay?"

"Hey," Cassie breaths out on a sigh of relief. "Yeah I'm good. I'm fine. Better than you actually." She steps closer until the fronts of her legs are pressed against the edge of his bed. "How are you feeling? I couldn't do much on site apart from setting the broken bones and stopping the internal bleeding."

Steve frowns at her sleepily. Whatever drugs they have him on must be strong and a heavy dosage, otherwise his metabolism would be burning through them more quickly. "You don't look okay," he says. "You look tired." His eyes fix on her ragged, muddy clothes and still bloody hands. "You hurt?"

His inflection makes it seem more like a question but he's slurring a little and looks like he's in danger of falling asleep again. Cassie treats it like a question and shakes her head. "No. No not hurt. Just tired. The blood isn't mine. Well," she glances down at herself and processes that it might be possible that some of the blood is hers. "Mostly. I'm almost definitely sure that most of the blood doesn't belong to me." Something occurs to her suddenly as she looks at her dirty hands and fingers. "Shit I'm way not sanitary enough for a hospital."

Steve gives a sleepy smile and shakes his head. "You're fine," he tells her. "Can't get sick anyway. Don't really get infections either."

"Well that must be convenient for you," Cassie says. "Meanwhile I'm a med student. I'm supposed to be good about this stuff." She looks around to try to see if Steve's room has a sink. "I should wash up." She spots the sink and moves over to it. Cassie scrubs away the dirt and blood on her skin and makes sure to get the build up out from under her nails.

Once she feels a little less grimy she goes back over to Steve's bed and is about to sit on the uncomfortable chair when Steve catches her wrist and pulls her to sit at the edge of his mattress. "All clean?" he asks. His eyes are light in a way Cassie hasn't seen often and she realizes suddenly that he's teasing.

And high.

Yeah Steve Rogers is almost definitely high right now.

Cassie sighs and follows the pull on her wrist to sit down. "I wouldn't go that far," she says. She isn't sure what to do when faced with Steve Rogers in a teasing mood so she decides that she's just going to roll with it. Maybe she'll be able to wait out the drugs. "On a metaphorical scale I probably still need some kind of specialized chemical bath. In the literal sense, I am probably now allowable inside the building."

He blinks and peers up at her. "That sounds like a lot of words right now," he says.

"That's because you're high," Cassie informs him. She twists her head and neck at an awkward angle to see the I.V bag leading in to the vein in Steve's hand. "On morphine I think," she says. "Personally I'm hoping it might be out of your system soon. There's a good chance you aren't going to remember any conversation we have right now and I really don't want to have to say all of this twice."

At that Steve frowns and looks down at the I.V line. "Take it out," he says. "I don't want this in anymore."

"I'm not your doctor," Cassie says automatically. "I can't."

To her horror, Steve starts moving around to get his other hand free. When it is he starts reaching for the I.V like he wants to pull it out himself. She moves to stop him without thinking about it, trapping his hand with hers. Steve pulls against her but the drugs still in his system are dulling his strength and that gives Cassie the right level of edge to keep him still. Steve glares up at her with a look of stubborn irritation. "Either you take it out or I will."

For a moment Cassie considers fighting him on it. With how drugged he still is she might have a shot. Gods she's tired though.

With a long sigh, she reaches over and carefully removes the line, following every medical procedure she's ever been taught to do so. "I'm probably gonna get in trouble for that," she says, more to herself than anyone else. At the moment it's hard to care very much. "If anybody asks you either don't remember the needle coming out or you pulled it yourself. Okay?"

Steve nods in agreement and pulls a little more against her arm, tugging her closer until she's curled awkwardly on the empty portion of his bed. Cassie lets herself follow the pull and does her best to situate herself so that she's not pulling or crushing any of the other wires and tubes monitoring and regulating Steve. This is one of those rare occasions when she's glad that she's as small as she is.

"How long 'till I wake up?" Steve asks.

Cassie shrugs burrowing her head a little further in to the pillow. It feels softer than it probably is in reality and her eyelids feel extraordinarily heavy. Both of these sensations are sure fire signs of exhaustion and Cassie figures she's got about a minute and a half at the most before she blacks out completely. In her head she runs a quick calculation with Steve's weight and the morphine dosage he's been given. "Hard to say," she says. "Depends on your metabolism. Couple hours probably..."

She doesn't mention that most of the time patients who woke up from drugged sleep normally fell in to natural rest shortly afterwards. Not everyone followed the pattern and she had no idea how Steve metabolized drugs. Lacking this knowledge means its possible her math is very very wrong.

As her eyes drift shut she's aware of Steve's head moving on the pillow. "Are you going to be here when I wake up?"

Cassie thinks she might make some kind of noise in the affirmative but she isn't sure. Steve's voice sounds like it's coming to her through a long, echoing tunnel, or maybe underwater. Not being Percy, that makes it difficult to process.

Anyway, the normal systems that process sounds from her ears and translates them in to messages for her brain doesn't seem to be working, and moments later her world dissolves in to blackness.

When she wakes up again, Steve is still asleep but his breathing and heartbeat are both regular. Cassie places two fingers at his temple and runs a quick scan which tells her that all of the drugs are out of his system now. A glance at the clock tells her she's been out for around six hours. She smiles. Apparently her calculations weren't as wrong as they could have been.

Every one of her joints makes their displeasure known audibly as she sits up and stretches her arms up over her head to work out the kinks. She tosses her feet over the edge of the bed and stands as quietly as she can. Both of her knee caps click and one of her hips gives an uncomfortable pop. a twist to the side pops the rest of her spine and Cassie rolls her neck as she stands.

A scan of the room reveals a door leading to a private bathroom she hadn't noticed the night before. There's also a green canvas bag sitting on the chair beside the bed. The bag makes her frown. The bathroom she hadn't noticed, the bag hadn't been there.

Cassie uses a pencil to prod the bag from a distance and when it doesn't explode and nothing jumps out of it at her she judges it safe enough to open. Inside is a pair of jean shorts and a black henley shirt made of soft cotton. There's also fresh underwear and a small bag of toiletries, all of which are her normal brand. That in correlation with the fact that the entire bag smells like rose perfume makes Cassie pretty sure that this bag is a present from Aphrodite.

There's also a new pair of shoes with a Mercury sign where the Nike swish would normally be, and an Olympus Cellular music card. She sends out a thank you prayer to cover her bases and then immediately starts worrying about what exactly her aunt, father, and grandfather are going to want in exchange for these presents. The possibilities are numerous and none of them are pleasant.

If there's one lesson she's learned the hard way, it's that the gods don't do things for free.

Never the less, she takes the bag and ducks in to the bathroom to use the shower. It does wonders and washes her clean while the hot water relaxes her muscles which are stiff and soar. The scent of her normal shampoo and soap along with the taste of her normal toothpaste after she's brushed her teeth instill a sense of calm normalcy in her that she hasn't felt in a while.

The clothes from the bag fit her perfectly and Cassie expects no less from the goddess of fashion. She decides to just be thankful that Aphrodite hadn't full on glamour blasted her like she did Piper every once in a while. Magic make up was a serious pain in the ass to remove and don't even get her started on the hair styles...

Anyway, by the time Cassie leaves the bathroom she's warm and clean and in a lot less pain than she could be all things considered. She would love a good meal but at this point she'll settle for a granola bar, some hospital Jell-O and maybe a cup of instant coffee. Hey, Cassie's a twice over demigod who was orphaned young. Her standards for decent food died about fifteen years ago.

She's in the process of braiding her damp blonde hair when Steve distracts her by waking up and voicing her name. His voice jolts her out of her own thoughts and she turns to look at him. If she'd had any doubts about weather the morphine is still in his system the look in his eyes would banish them. His pupils are no longer over dilated and the blue of his irises is a cloudless blue. His gaze follows her around the room as she moves and he seems to have absolutely no problem tracking her.

"You're still here," he says.

Cassie finishes her braid and secures it with a hair tie she keeps around her wrist sometimes for emergencies. "I'm pretty sure I said I would be." She goes and sits on the edge of his bed. "You weren't the only person a little out of it. And-" she stops, biting her lip for a moment before she keeps going, trying to figure out the best way to phrase what she says next. "I owe you a conversation. Figured it would be better to balance the books sooner rather than later."

He gives a dry chuckle and Cassie is looking for the water pitcher before she can stop herself. "You sound like Natasha," Steve tells her as she stands and pours a cup of water. "She talks about debts, about having a ledger." He takes the cup she hands him and drains it. "It never made sense to me. After everything, I guess maybe I'm starting to see the appeal of having a scale- of knowing where you are in the balance."

An image flashes through Cassie's mind. It's an image of bronze measuring scales, of glowing hearts and golden feathers and a creature ready to eat those who are deemed unworthy. It's not an image that really belongs in Cassie's head. Neither of her gods are Egyptian but she knows the stories and knows that that version of the underworld is real even if it won't be the one she faces in the end.

She shakes her head to clear it and steals herself for what's coming. "So?" she asks leadingly. "Want to have that talk?"

To her surprise Steve shakes his head. "Not now. I want us to have time for this and I have some things I have to do this afternoon. Assuming the doctors here will discharge me." The look of distaste she has on her face when he says that makes Cassie think that what the doctors do won't matter much to him. Everything she knows about Steve Rogers tells her that he is in no way a stranger to acting against medical advice.

She nods and begins to make for the door. She won't ask what else Steve might have to do today. As Steve has questions for her, other people (namely the general public) will have questions for him. The way he plays his answers and tells his story over the next few days will be crucial. Besides, a whole lot of people died yesterday. Cassie guesses that Steve will want to go to some of the funerals.

"I'll be at the diner tonight," she tells him. "Come by when you've done what you need to do. We'll have dinner, and I'll explain."

That's all they go on in terms of plans. They don't set a time or make any more specific arrangements. Cassie thinks that that's probably a good thing. Planning hasn't ever been her strong suite and she can tell already that her day is going to be hectic. After all, she has to find somewhere new to live. Her old apartment is doubtlessly crawling with SHIELD agents by now, and living in a bugged apartment lacks appeal.

So Cassie spends the day apartment hunting and by the and of it sh thinks she might have a lead, but she's still going to be stuck with facing at least a week in a hotel. She makes it to the diner she works at and waves at the people who are on shift. They was back at her and a cup of hot coffee lands in front of her mere moments after she sits down.

Steve arrives about twenty minutes after she sits down and its good timing on his part because that gives her time to drink her first cup of coffee and start contemplating food options. It doesn't hurt any that the late hour means that the diner is experiencing the beginning of the small rush of people who work later shifts. That means that the staff is busy enough not to get curious, and the patrons themselves are decidedly uninterested in what anyone else is doing. If Cassie has to dish out her life story, this is as good a time and place as any to do it.

They sit in relative silence for a few minutes after Steve arrives. He orders coffee and food and Cassie orders a burger with fries. They get their food and tuck in and she decides that eating takes precedence over talking. Steve seems to agree because he devours his entire plate and then orders a second before showing any signs of slowing down.

When they've both eaten some, Steve wipes his hands with a napkin and sits back. "So," he says. Cassie chews slowly and swallows before dropping the remains of her burger. She waits in silence for Steve's questions, unsure of what exactly is about to happen but fairly certain she won't enjoy it. However the silence stretches on and eventually Steve just shakes his head. "I don't know how to ask what I want to ask," he admits.

Cassie bights her lower lip in contemplation, trying to decide where to start from. Soon enough her mind lands on a simple enough test to see where exactly she's working from. She rolls up her sleeve so that the legion tattoo on her forearm is visible and holds it out for his inspection. "Can you see this?" she asks.

Steve examines the markings and frowns. "So you have a tattoo?" he asks. "Yeah I can see it. Don't know what it might be though."

That could mean a few things so Cassie decides to pursue the topic to clarify. "So you can see the tattoo but you can't read it?" she checks. Steve nods and Cassie withdraws her arm, assessing what she now knows. That Steve can see the markings at all means that he can see through the mist more than the average person. The fact that what he sees is indistinct means that he's still not seeing completely clearly. It's a partial blurring rather than a full on blinding of true sight, and somehow Cassie will have to clear his vision further before she can explain.

She sits forward and studies Steve's face carefully. "Do you trust me?" she asks. "If you don't this will never work the way that we both need it to."

Steve doesn't respond verbally, but he nods without breaking eye contact with her and doesn't flinch away when Cassie leans closer. She holds up both of her hands, palms open. "There's something I'm going to have to do," she tells him. "Most people, they've got this kind of- kind of a block in their minds. For me to explain, it can't be in yours."

His brow furrows a little at her words but he doesn't back away from contact with her when Cassie places her fingers against his temples. "Is this going to hurt?" he asks. He asks the question almost like it's a joke but Cassie doesn't treat it like one.

"Scientia semper nocere possunt," she says quietly. "Knowledge can always hurt." Then she focuses her magic, allowing a fragment of her healing power to glow through her palms. It thrums under her fingertips where they splay along his temple and jaw. Golden light flows gently in to Steve's veins below the skin and focuses in his eyes. In seconds the blue is completely obscured by gold. In that undefinable region of her mind where Cassie's healing powers reside, she feels something click in to place and the gold recedes, flowing back in to her palms.

Cassie is surprised to find that she isn't tired. She'd never tried to open a person's eyes and mind like that before, only heard that it was possible. She knows that Annabeth's cousin Magnus has performed a similar feet, and she shares a certain profile of abilities with the boy. What she just attempted was purely based on a guess.

Steve blinks as the last sparks of Cassie's magic fades from his eyes and he looks down at her. "What-" he starts to stay but Cassie cuts him off. She holds out her arm for inspection once more and asks "Can you read it now?"

At first Steve looks at her like he thinks she might be insane. Which, all things considered isn't all that surprising. Then he follows her prompting and re-examines her arm. Cassie gets the feeling he's doing it to humor her, but the important thing is that he looks.

What's more important than that is that this time he seems to actually _see._

Tentatively, he reaches out and warm callused fingers trace the symbols branded in to her flesh. "SPQR," he says quietly as his fingers trace the letters. "Does that mean something?"

Cassie nods. "Senatus Populusque Romanus," she tells him. "It's the Latin motto of the Roman Empire. It means 'for the senate and the people of Rome'. Legionaries used to get them to declare their rank and loyalty." Steve's fingers slide slightly to the side and sketch lightly over the lines that form the lyre of Apollo and caduceus of Mercury. He raises an eyebrow at her in question and Cassie explains what they are. "They're symbols," she says. "Of-" her throat goes suddenly dry and she forces herself to swallow before she continues. "Of the gods."

Steve straightens at this, opening up space between them, but his hands don't leave her arm where they're braced around her elbow and wrist. "Gods." The word is spoken in a way that could either be a question or a statement and Cassie isn't quite sure which. Steve's also doing his best to make his expression blank but he isn't actually very good at it no matter how much time he spends with Natasha.

"Yeah," she says, mouth still feeling dry.

Steve is still regarding her carefully. Cassie still doesn't know exactly how to launch her explanation so she waits for him to ask her a question that she can answer. Finally he says. "Who exactly are you?"

His choice of questioning word makes Cassie flinch involuntarily and her reply comes out more sharply than she means it to. "I assume you mean _what_ am I?" Her voice is cold in her own ears. "Because I'm exactly _who_ I was the first time I ever met you." Steve's eyes have widened fractionally and Cassie thinks he might apologize, reverting to manners at the idea that he might have offended her but she doesn't give him the chance. "My name is Cassie Morgenstern," she says. "I'm twenty-three years old and a medical student. I was born in Florida and raised in New York. My grandmother died when my mother was young, my own mother died when I was a child and both my father and grandfather abandoned their children. It also just happens that neither of them were exactly Jo Normal."

Slowly, everything she's ever said about herself and her parentage seems to come together for Steve inside his head. "Before," he says slowly. "You said something about your father being like Thor. Are you saying-" he shakes his head like he almost can't believe what he's about to say. "Are you saying that your father is a _god_?"

"Father," Cassie says as lightly as she can manage. "Grandfather. And, if you want to get genetically technical about it, a whole mess of relatives on the paternal side of the family." She sits forwards and points to the symbols on her arm with her other hand. "This," she says pointing to the lyre. "Is the symbol of my father. And this," she points to the caduceus "is the mark of my grandfather."

The look on Steve's face isn't all that different from the expression of a person trying to swallow a grape whole. "So..." he struggles, searching for words. "Are you, related to Thor then?"

He looks so put off by the idea that Cassie can't help but smile a little as she shakes her head. "No," she assures. "No thats the wrong pantheon. He's no relation. Though I have a friend who's cousin-" she cuts herself off at the expression on Steve's face. Introducing him to the world of real live Greco-Roman mythology is enough for one day. Norse and Egyptian gods would have to wait.

If the subject ever comes up that is.

At this point Cassie doesn't think it's very likely. Especially if she has anything to say about it.

"No," she says, getting back on topic. "Thor and I are in no way related."

Steve's mind appears to have been moving very quickly as Cassie ordered her thoughts. "You said to me a while ago that you were Greek and Italian. Are you- I mean are the- the gods you're related to..."

He can't seem to make himself finish his question. Maybe he doesn't know how. Maybe he isn't even sure what it is he wants to ask. Either way she decides to save him from having to try. "Yes," she confirms. "Though Greek and Roman are closer than saying Greek and Italian. Italy didn't really become an official place until after..." she lets herself trail off again because she doesn't know if saying that her grandfather originated with Rome will help or hurt in this situation.

"So are you more Roman?" Steve says. "Or more Greek? Or are they kind of the same?"

It's not the most politically sensitive question to someone who knows as much about both Greeks and Romans as Cassie does, but Steve hasn't run away screaming and seems to genuinely want to understand so Cassie will do her best to clarify. "They're not," she says. "The same that is. They look similar from today's viewpoint on mythology because when Rome invaded Greece they adopted the gods, but Roman culture was different, and the gods personalities changed to reflect that. They became less flighty, less creative, less artistic because Romans didn't really value those things. As a whole the gods became a bit more militant, more like an army. It created a schism in the gods themselves, creating separate though simultaneously existing beings."

Steve looks like his head is hurting at this onslaught of new information and concepts.

Cassie can't blame him. She's had a headache too the first time anyone had tried to explain it before. And she'd had the benefit of actually knowing that both versions of the gods existed given her unique genetic situation.

"To answer your question I'm more Greek than Roman," she says in an attempt to maybe dress the simplest issue at hand. She gestures back at the lyre tattooed on her forearm. "Apollo, see? The Greek god of art, poetry, archery, healing, the sun, and music. The lyre is his symbol."

A shiver runs up her arm and down her spine as Steve's fingers shift, tracing over the lyre and on to the caduceus. "I've seen this before," he says. "Don't hospitals use it?"

She nods in agreement. "Yes," she confirms. "It's the symbol of Mercury. Roman god of messengers, doctors, and thieves. Really anyone who uses the open road. Mercury isn't that picky about who he sponsors. Kind of a Jack-of-all-trades. My teacher thinks that's probably why I'm as powerful as I am. Every specific power attribute I got from Apollo sort of combined with the versatility of Mercury and just kind of...amplified." She shrugs. "But then again I'm kind of unique in my situation, so that's pretty much just a guess."

Steve tips his head. "Does that mean that there are other people like you?"

This, this is the portion of the conversation Cassie had been hoping to avoid. Spilling the beans on her own existence is bad but revealing that there is seriously an entire world and multiple armies occupied by people like her is borderline apocalyptic. And Cassie's a girl who knows what apocalyptic looks doesn't answer and won't meet Steve's eyes. She won't lie to Steve now, but this is one secret that isn't hers to tell. It belongs to all of the demigods of Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter and she won't give it up if she has absolutely any other choice.

When she glances back up from under the curtain of blonde her hair has become Steve is looking at her with an expression of resolved understanding. He nods once and says "I see," and Cassie lets out a breath she hadn't know she was holding. It seems like in just this one situation, Steve is willing to let her get away with an omission, and she's immeasurably grateful for it.

She gives him a genuine smile to show her gratitude and though Steve doesn't exactly return it, he still isn't leaving either. Her wonder at this small miracle is interrupted by Steve's fingers traveling lightly to the seven small score marks that form the rest of her Legion tattoo. "What are these for?"

"Years," Cassie says. "One line per year."

She doesn't elaborate because she doesn't know how to without saying too much.

For a long moment after that they don't speak. Cassie won't break this silence because again, she doesn't know what else to say. It seems almost impossible that this is all Steve wants to know. More questions _must_ be coming. She just doesn't know what they'll be yet. So instead of breaking the silence she listens to the sounds of patrons chatting and cutlery clattering against plates and tries very hard not to be driven crazy by the sensation of Steve's thumb moving in small, gentle circles over the sensitive skin at the crease of her elbow.

Eventually Steve's hands move down and before Cassie has really processed it he's holding her hand with both of his, cradling it, examining her palm and fingers. He looks back up at her and holds out one hand expectantly. Cassie takes the hint and moves her other hand from where she's been using it to brace against the table and in to his waiting palm.

Once she's done that Steve flips her hands in his so that both of their palms are facing upwards. The tips of his fingers are long enough that they curve upwards over the bones of her wrists. Cassie's on the other hand, just graze the heals of his hands. "What you did the other day for Nat," he says. "That's part of your abilities right? Healing."

Cassie nods her head in the affirmative. "Yeah. Apollo is the god of healing and medicine in general which is where most of the ability comes from. Mercury being the god of healers helps me use it the right way."

"Is that why you want to be a doctor?" he wants to know. "Because you can heal people anyway?"

She feels her eyebrows furrow as she attempts to answer his question. "It's a little more complicated than that," she tells him. "Like, gods this is hard to explain. Is there anything that you're just good at? Something that no one else had to teach you how to do?"

Steve nods meditatively. "Drawing," he says. "Even before I got the serum I knew how to draw. It wasn't always easy or good, but it never felt hard either."

"That's what healing is for me," Cassie tells him. "I can touch a person in pain and know how to help them. It's," she searches for the right words. "It's instinctual for me. It's like doing a Rubik's Cube and knowing immediately which squares are out of place and how to shift them back if I focus." She shrugs. "It's like a sixth sense, or an extra limb. It's a part of me, and I can't get rid of it. I have to _use_ it. Its-" she searches for the right words. "Its almost the only thing on Earth that I'm just good at, that I just know how to do."

"You want to help people," Steve says like he's just realized the truth of the words. Cassie nods but she doesn't know if Steve sees it because he hasn't looked up from where he holds her palms in his. One of his fingers brushes the archery callus on her finger, another against the scar at the base of her thumb from a snapped bow string. "Why?" he says quietly.

Cassie doesn't know how to answer that question. Eventually she settles on the simplest answer. "Because I believe that that's my choice," she says. "Because the gods can give me power but they don't get to tel me how to use it. Because the fates exist but I don't have to let them control how I live my life. I have a choice," she repeats quietly. "I chose, at least when I can, to do good."

A small smile crosses Steve's face as though he's remembering something a little bittersweet. "Before I was given the serum, the man who invented it told me that he had chosen me because I was basically good," he tells her. "He said that the serum intensified everything. That good men became great, and bad men became worse."

Cassie contemplates that for a moment. "That makes sense," she concludes. "If you give a man enough strength they can either move a mountain to clear a path or crush it to rain carnage down on a village below. Extreme abilities allowing for more extreme actions." She lifts one hand a little and gestures between the two of them before placing her hand back in his. "You and me, we have extremes."

Something seems to cross Steve's mind. "When you touched my face earlier," he says. "When you helped me see your tattoo. Was that healing? Or was it something else?"

"That's a little bit complicated," she tells him.

Steve looks around them at the mostly empty diner and then pulls his phone from his pocket. He powers off the device and lays it on the table. "We have time," he says, fixing her with his gaze.

A deep breath rattles a little as Cassie pulls it in between her teeth. "Okay," she says. "I'm not the best at explaining this," she warms. "So just bear with me okay? I'll do my best but there's going to be shit I just can't clarify. There'll be questions you have that I just can't answer. And it won't be because I don't want to, it'll be because I honestly don't know. Okay?"

He nods and his hands tighten a little on hers as he seems to almost physically prepare himself for her explanation. "Alright," she says. "Uh... Do you know how your immune system works?" Steve looks a little confused by her line of questioning but he nods. "Good. So you know that basically it's how your body fights off foreign bodies. Your system recognizes something that doesn't belong there and does it's best to reject it. Well, most people's minds work basically the same way."

"How do you mean?" he prompts. "People's minds just reject whatever they don't want there?" Cassie takes it as a good sign that he's at least following along with what she's trying to say.

"It's not necessarily that they consciously reject what they don't want," Cassie clarifies. "You don't consciously reject germs when you feel like you're getting sick. Your body, or in this case your mind, just tries to alter what it thinks doesn't belong. Your eyes see something, and if what they see doesn't make sense to your brain, your brain changes what you see to an interpretation that you can consciously understand."

Steve looks a little lost so Cassie draws his attention back to her tattoo. "Take this for instance. It's a symbol of godly power so what people see there depends on what makes the most sense to them. If they're particularly effected by the Mist like most mortals they might see nothing more than blank skin. If they're a little more clear sighted like you are they might see a blurry tattoo but not be able to read it."

"What's the Mist?" Steve asks.

It's clear from his town that he's capitalized the word in his head. Clearly he can tell that it's important but has no idea what it is. "It's like a filter," Cassie says, putting her explanation in to the simplest terms she can. It obscures things that don't make sense to mortals. It's basically like a layer that creates a blank so that mortal minds can project whatever image they think makes the most sense. It can be manipulated with practice, but I've never been very good at that."

The furrow between his eyebrows relaxes for a moment and then re-establishes itself. "How come I could see the tattoo then."

At that Cassie actually manages a grin. "Back to my immune system analogy," she says. "If you get a shot, an immunization, then you don't feel the effects of the bacteria or virus the same way because after being exposed to a sample of the foreign body your system adjusts." She turns he hands over so that they're palm to palm with Steve's. "You met Loki and Thor," she says. "My theory is that meeting them was your immunization shot. Your mind was faced with undeniable proof of gods before you ever met me, so when I told you what I am you were already set up to understand it. The information didn't feel harmful because you're immunization let you see through the gaps."

Steve's expression clears and he lets out a tiny half laugh. "So basically what you're saying is that when I first got here, you gave me my last booster shot and that pulled up the filter."

It's as good a finish of her explanation as Cassie can think of so she nods. "Pretty much. You might see some weird things now. I'm telling you right now don't go near anything that doesn't seem human. It won't die the way you think it will." That thought is a little more serious than she wants it to be so she casts around for something else to say. "Who's been telling you about booster shots?" she asks. "I kind of doubt they were that popular when you were a kid."

Steve rolls his eyes with a huff. "Immunization in general barely existed when I was a kid," he says. "I wish they had been. I've been reading up on them. If I'd been immunized, I might not have gotten measles, or mumps, or pneumonia, or any of the other various viral and bacterial problems that almost killed me when I was a kid. One of the times I had last rights could have been prevented if I'd gotten the shots babies are given as standard operating procedure these days."

It sounds like this is something he could launch a nice tirade about if nudged a little and Cassie kind of wants to be there to video tape it when it happens. She has a feeling it would go internet viral pretty damn fast. She can only imagine how certain members of the United States government would react.

Steve's rant slowly dies out in to a last mutter about heard immunity and then trails off.

Cassie shifts a bit in her seat. "So..." she says finally. "I'm betting you have more questions?"

Steve's hands move under hers until their fingers are twined together. Cassie looks down at them, a little bit fascinated by the overlapping patterns their hands make. His fingers are wider and longer than hers, calloused and roughened from punching and carrying his shield. There's a small ink spot on his right thumb that is still there despite the last few days. Her own fingers are smaller. Long end delicate and well suited for instruments but equally as calloused and dotted with small scars that never quite fade from using her bow.

In some ways their hands are alike she thinks. They both have artists hands, and both of them are scarred and twisted by the instruments they choose to wield. He could draw but he shapes the world with a shield instead, using it like a great vibranium shielder or potter's wheel. Cassie could paint or play any instrument but instead she writes her name on the world with a scalpel and stitches and erases blights with a bow and arrow. She carves out mistakes with a knife and sometimes her music is the pounding of a steady pulse in her ears.

"Not tonight," Steve says gently, watching her. His eyes are clear and warmer than she thinks she's ever seen them. "Not about this." Cassie nods and moves to shift away but Steve's fingers tighten on hers so she can't back up. "I do have a question though." Cassie blinks up at him expectantly. "Can we do this again?" he asks. "Eat dinner. Talk."

"Why Steve Rogers," Cassie says teasingly. "Are you asking me on a date? And you haven't even asked my father for permission yet."

She flips her hair and peers at him through her eyelashes the way girls used to in old movies and grins as Steve blushes. "If a guy has to ask _your_ father for permission to date you I'm shocked you get out at all."

"Well I didn't much," she admits. "Surviving and fighting never left much time to date. In all honesty I don't think my dad actually cared now or then who I date." It's true. Being a god and all, her father tends to be a little bit busy. Besides, he has additional aspects and multiple children he can check in with, plus extra godly things to do. Of all the Olympians Apollo isn't the most together to begin with.

All in all she highly doubts her dad gives a crap about who she dates.

"Waiting on an answer to my question," she says prodding gently. "I've been answering yours all night. Fair is fair wouldn't you say."

"I am a great believer in equality," Steve manages to say with a straight face. His solemn words don't match at all with the glint in his eyes and the paradox makes Cassie smile. Steve looks down to their joined hands and then back up in to her face. He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "Would you be amenable to coming out with me again?" he asks, and in his voice Cassie can hear the cadences of a well mannered Irish boy from the forties. She thinks this is how the Steve Rogers from before the war might have sounded asking out a girl from the neighborhood. Polite, a little shy, and so damn hopeful it almost hurts.

Cassie gentles her smile and if she didn't know more about how her godly powers work she would wonder if it's possible for her to actually be glowing a little bit. In that moment she feels warm and almost safe despite everything that's happened over the last few days and everything that will happen in the days to come.

For the moment, all she is is just _happy_ and the feeling is almost unfamiliar enough to be startling.

More than anything she wants this happiness to last. She wants it to be normal. Cassie doesn't want her own happiness to feel alien.

"Yes," she says. "I would like that very much."

 **A/N: So there we are. I know this chapter was mostly conversation and explanation but I felt like it was about time for Cassie to explain things to Steve. I spent a bunch of time trying to get the conversation to make sense. You guys will have to tell me how I did on that but I think it turned out okay. I wasn't completely sure if I should end the chapter here or keep going but this felt like the last natural stopping point for a little while and the chapter was already almost 9k long. Anyway, tell me what you thought! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Cassie is pretty much the only thing involved here that belongs to me.**

In the end Steve walks Cassie home because of course he does. It's the kind of thing a guy would do in an old movie which makes it the kind of thing Steve does on principle. However, he also walks a little slower than he might normally. He's stiff and clearly in pain so Cassie sends him home once they reach the block her hotel is on with a kiss on the cheek. Cassie's enhanced vision barely lets her see the flush the action brings out on Steve's face through the dark they stand in between the streetlamp.

Once she's inside going to bed seems to be the only logical next step. Cassie happens to be smart enough not to question logic in this moment so she kicks her shoes off by the door and collapses on to her mattress in her pajamas. Her head is buzzing as she mentally reviews everything she and Steve have said that night but this is one night when even her own brain can't talk loudly enough to keep her awake.

When she comes back in to consciousness, it's a much slower process than it normally would be considering that it only happens because someone is pounding on the door of her hotel room. Normally sudden noises have Cassie jolting in to awareness and reaching for the nearest available weapon within seconds. However, this morning she's warm and her mattress is bathed in sunlight.

Waking up feels like slowly floating up through water until her head breaks the surface. Which is to say, it's gentle and pleasant until the moment she's forced to gulp for air and start treading water to prevent drowning. Given some of her father's poetry, Cassie's actually fairly proud of that descriptive analogy.

With a groan and a run of fairly diverse mental cursing Cassie rolls out of bed with considerably less grace than she normally uses in her daily navigations of the world. She has to pause for a moment after she's upright as the sudden movement triggers a head-rush and she makes a mental note to mainline some water. Cassie is familiar with the symptoms and effects of dehydration and she isn't interested in re-experiencing them too thoroughly.

After the dancing black spots clear out of her vision Cassie makes her way to the door. "I didn't ask for housekeeping today," she calls through the door. "I put the little sign tag thingy on the door handle."

"Well now I'm a little insulted," says a cocky, familiar, male voice from out in the hall. "For one thing I have never once done a single day of housekeeping in my life, though I admit I may look fetching in maid costume. For another, implying that a, what did you call it, 'little sign tag thingy?' has ever deterred me is insulting on an entirely separate level."

The sound of that voice freezes Cassie where she stands as her mind spins. She's generally good at recognizing voices, better than most people at any rate, and certainly better than she is at recognizing faces. However, in this situation she's willing to believe she's wrong is anyone can offer her a different solution to the one she has in her head. In all honesty she's sincerely hoping that someone will.

Because otherwise she has to figure out why in the name of every known cultural region of hell adjacent afterlife Tony Stark is outside her hotel room at seven o'clock in the morning on a Saturday.

Crap, she has a shift in four hours.

Well, they say seeing is believing and Cassie certainly wasn't believing at the moment. With that phrase in mind she pulls herself up a little ways to look through the peep hole in the door and groans at the sight. Improbable as it may be, Tony Stark is sure as hell standing in the hall of her hotel room at seven in the morning.

The world is either tipping off of it's axis, she's in a parallel dimension, the sky is falling, or some combination of all three.

She sighs as she pulls the door open. "Why in any known version of hell are you here?" she asks. The gene for being subtle may have been somewhat bred out of the demigod pool. On her good days Cassie can reign in that particular portion of her nature and keep her verbal filter activated. This isn't looking like one of her good days.

Stark doesn't seem in the least bit put off by her less-than-warm welcome and just smirks at her. "Now _that's_ a greeting," he says, voice thick with a brand of sarcasm that's a class more refined than what she experiences on a daily basis. "You know I was just wondering a little while ago about the manners of young people these days. People say they're going to hell in a hand basket but you," he gestures at her with both hands. "Fresh and lovely as a springtime daisy."

Cassie blinks at him and comes to the conclusion that she needs to up her mental word processing capacity if she's actually going to try to have to have a conversation with this man. "I need coffee," she mutters turning her back on Stark but leaving the door open behind her. She pads softly back through the room to the miniature kitchenette there and turns on the hotel provided Kurig.

The coffee brews and percolates with a promising bubble and steam hissing noise and the smell begins to fill the air. She never looks back at Tony Stark but she trains her senses to keep track of him as he moves through her temporary space. He flits through the hotel room, tapping the rattling air conditioning, peering out the window, and examining the solitary bag she has with her.

"Saw you on TV," he says as he moves. "You've got some moves, some interesting abilities." Cassie doesn't speak. She knows enough about psychology to know when someone is fishing for a response and at the moment she isn't really in the mood to give one.

Stark keeps talking, ignoring the fact that she has yet to participate in the conversation. It means he's having more of a monologue than anything else, but that doesn't seem to bother him so Cassie lets him run with it as her coffee brews. "I didn't recognize you at first but you looked familiar so I had a good look around in the old rolodex here," he taps his forehead. "Don't mean to brag- well no that's a lie, but I'm kind of a genius. Eidetic memory and everything so eventually I figured it out. You're that med student chick who fixed us up after the Battle of New York."

Her coffee finishes brewing so Cassie pours it in to a mug and cradles it to her chest, cooling the scalding liquid to the point where she can drink it. The taste isn't fantastic but the warmth emanates through her hands and in to her chest. The coffee is still too hot for her to drink practically and it burns her tongue and the back of her throat but at least she's awake now.

"What do you want Mr. Stark?" she asks, finally turning to face him as she leans back in to her counter. She won't drink the rest of her coffee just yet, the slightly blistered feeling in her mouth taught her that lesson. However, the hot liquid and even the mug she has it in could potentially serve as an improvised weapon if she turns out to need one. If she can catch him off guard he won't have time to suite up. On the other hand, she isn't planning on fighting anyone this morning if she can help it which means in all likelihood she won't be attacking first.

Stark pivots and meets her eyes. He can't seem to stop fidgeting and Cassie quickly diagnoses a healthy dose of ADHD to go along with his eidetic memory. On principle, she makes a mental note to try to avoid having this man ever meet Leo Valdez. She has a feeling the resulting fire ball and mushroom cloud would be hard to deal with. "Who says there's something I want?" he asks. "Can't I just want to have a nice conversation on a Saturday morning?"

Cassie rolls her eyes. "Don't bull shit me," she says flatly. "I'm not the one who showed up unannounced early in the morning at the doorway of someone I met once two years ago because I saw them on TV. I don't know you, and you don't know me. You have no reason to put in the work to try to find me and no reason to show up here _unless_ there's something that you want. So," she looks him dead in the eyes and tries to pin him where he is with just a look. Annabeth does this better than her but Annabeth isn't here right now so Cassie's version will have to be good enough. "I'm going to ask you one more time. What do you want Mr. Stark?"

He narrows his eyes at her, seeming to take her in. Cassie almost wants to laugh as she remembers that Leo once told her he understood machines better than he did people. Stark is still trying to figure out what makes her tick, assessing her like a machine or an equation. It's almost a relief. As long as he keeps not seeing her as a human being he won't ever really be able to figure out how Cassie operates.

With demigods, and with most people in general there is a balance between guts, head, and heart. Cassie's personal ratio isn't quite as skewed as some people's are. However, she's always done a bit more with her heart and her gut than she ever has with her brain. It's one of the reasons she, Annabeth, and Piper operate well together.

"I'm here to make you an offer," he says. "For a job. Pretty lucrative one too. Housing and benefits included. Vacation time might be a bit spotty but seeing as you're currently living out of a hotel instead of crashing with a friend I'm thinking you aren't the type to try running a social life."

It's hard to argue with the truth so Cassie doesn't say anything and inclines her head the tinniest bit in acknowledgement. She also raises her eyebrows at the job offer of it all. "I'm not a businesswoman," she says, injecting a note of calm blankness in to her voice. "I'm not a secretary and I'm sure as hell not any kind of genius so I guess I'm confused as to exactly what kind of job it is you're offering me."

Stark's own eyebrows shoot up at her words. "What kind of not a genius graduates medical school two years younger than anyone else with some of the highest grades in their class."

"A homeschooled one," she says tersely. "And I haven't graduated yet." Her coffee has called enough to drink at this point and by now she thinks it's unlikely she'll have to use her morning beverage as a weapon so she takes a cautious sip. When her tongue isn't any more burned than it used to be by the liquid she takes a larger sip and shifts so she's a little more comfortable. "So what exactly is the job you're offering me?"

He leans forward more intently and Cassie focuses on his words. His shift in body language tells her he's coming to his point and she wants to make sure she doesn't miss it. "If there's one thing this whole thing," he gestures expansively with one hand. "Has proved, it's that we are never going to be able to do what we do without casualties. People are always going to get hurt. We need someone around who knows how to patch us up afterwards. Someone who can run triage."

Cassie feels her mouth drop open but manages to recover her shock quickly enough to pick up her jaw before it can be bruised by the floor. Suddenly, she has a pretty good idea of where this conversation is going, and as with every other time she's had pre-knowledge, knowing the destination isn't making the journey any more pleasant. "And you want that someone to be me?" she asks, skepticism dripping from her every word. "I don't normally like to ask this because it is _so_ not in my wheelhouse, but are you insane?"

"Maybe," he says without missing a beat. "Maybe not. But I know you patched Rogers up after what happened with SHIELD. The doctors at the hospital say if you hadn't been on scene he might not have gotten there super serum or not. And you patched all of us up after New York. You looked at two super assassins, a literal living legend with exponential healing, the Hulk, and a Norse God and you didn't bat an eye or ask a question. You just did your job. I want you to keep doing that job, only in New York, and for money."

"I'm not even a fully qualified doctor yet," Cassie says, almost laughing at the absurdity of this conversation. "Why are you asking me? I still have exams and boards to take. I have to be an intern and do a residency. There are a million qualified doctors out there in the world who would jump at the chance to go work with you people. I'm just a medical student."

Stark shrugs. "Why not you?" he says. "You're an M.D as soon as you pass your exams. You obviously know what you're doing with triage. Besides, if you try the job for a while and hate it I will personally see to it that you get a medical internship at any hospital you want."

Cassie stares at him. She opens her mouth and shuts it again as she tries to marshal her thoughts and translate them in to words. "So... what I'd just be your team doctor?" she asks. "What would I do the rest of the time? When you guys aren't on missions and are just being," she waves her hand vaguely. "Whatever it is you people are when the world isn't ending. What do I do then?"

"Research?" he suggests. "Volunteer at a clinic, monitor mental health for the people working at the Tower, hell," he says with another shrug. The second one in as many minutes. "Cure cancer if you want. I'll pay you for whatever you want to do. You would just need to be on call to help civilians and run relief in crisis zones and be there to patch us up if we get banged up by the bad guy of the day."

With a sigh Cassie lets her head fall backwards and rotates her neck to try to work out the kinks. A part of her mind wonders weather this is a very complicated and improbable dream. Given the things she's actually lived through already it's highly possible that her mind is rifling around and scraping at the bottom of the barrel for some original material. The majority of her brain tells her that this is in no way the most bizarre thing to ever happen in her life and she should probably just roll with it as per usual.

She looks back at him, squinting her eyes a little. As her vision focuses in on him she picks out details she hadn't noticed before. Stark's eyes are wide and dilated and there are bags beneath them, sure signs that he hasn't slept recently and is relying on some kind of energy drink to keep himself awake. His suite, though expensive and high end is crumpled from sitting in the plane or car he used to get here. Mentally Cassie calculates and works out that he must have come here almost as soon as he had seen the news on TV. Briefly she wonders if he's gone to see Steve yet.

"Do I need to decide right now?" she asks. If she can play for time then maybe she can at least pretend to herself that she's making a carefully considered decision.

Oh wait. She's a demigod.

Demigods don't consider things.

Thought out decisions are for mortals and normal people.

Silly Cassie.

Stark pulls a manilla folder out of the front of his suite jacket and drops it on the counter in front of her. "Contract's in there," he says easily. "Take today. Read it over. There's a phone number in there to. Call it when you have an answer for me." He moves for the door and slides through. "Move in day is the end of the month," he calls over his shoulder. "Drag Rogers back with you when you come won't you? Man's a New Yorker. He shouldn't spend too long outside the mother land."

With that comment he's gone, pulling the door behind him.

Cassie is left holding her half full coffee cup and staring at the folder beside her. She feels like she's standing on the edge of something and might be about to fall off if she doesn't decide to jump. Gods, and just yesterday she was talking to Steve about believing that she had a choice.

With a resigned sigh, Cassie reaches out and takes the folder, sliding it closer to her. It's a lengthy contract and given her dyslexia reading it is going to take a while so Cassie settles in for a long morning. She still has three hours before work so maybe she can get this day back on schedule after all.

By the time she's done reading the contract her coffee is cold and she has to hurry to get dressed and ready to go. The contract is open on her table and it stops her on her way out the door. " _Gods_ please don't let me regret this," she murmurs fervently. With three short strides, she's back at the counter, pen in hand. She signs on the dotted line with a flourish and pulls out the piece of paper with Stark's number.

She dials the number in to her phone with almost angry jabs of the buttons and holds it to her ear. In her mind she's running through a mental dictionary of every swear word she knows in several different languages and is starting to thinks she's been doing that too often. Maybe she needs to start expanding her vocabulary. Cassie adds it to her to-do list and wonders if Natasha might be willing to teach her more. After all, they might end up seeing each other a lot in the near future.

The message she leaves on Stark's answering machine is two words. "I'm in."

And with that she becomes the Avengers part time personal physician effective upon her graduation from medical school.

Until she graduates she continues working shifts at the diner though she cuts down from what she had been working before. One of the benefits of her new job is a truly exorbitant salary. She'll be making more straight out of school than graduates who have been out for a decade. The other benefit is an incredibly secure privacy contract. She can't talk about her work, but no one she works with can talk about her either. From now on her files are either deleted or sealed from everyone who doesn't work for Stark, including, she's been assured, the government.

Basically, she's anonymous starting at the beginning of June. And very well paid.

She tells Steve about the new job she's taken working with his team and he smiles and congratulates her on her new employment. He also tells her that he's moving back in to the Tower himself pretty soon. Like her, almost everything he owns is still in storage after the fall of SHIELD and he's been crashing with Sam Wilson in the interim.

Cassie actually sees Steve pretty often at this point. She spends her days studying and ding exam prep and he spends his in depositions, interviews, and other meetings with important people in the government. When he's not doing that it's relief work and not a day of the news cycle goes by without Steve's face popping up on TV for one reason or another.

She gets several phone calls from Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Reyna, and Rachel when a picture of her pulling Steve out of the mud and to an ambulance surfaces in the news. It's blurry and indistinct so only someone who knows her well would be able to use it to identify her so Cassie isn't all that worried. Besides, it's a good test of the privacy agreement in her contract and she wants to see exactly what Stark and the Avengers will do. Her name never comes up and the story she's involved in is killed discretely in less than twenty-four hours. In her book, that equals test passed.

The phone calls that she returns are mostly to reassure the people who care about her that she's okay and to tell them that she's moving back to New York. The news is greeted with happiness and Sally Jackson is borderline ecstatic to hear that one of her babysitters will be back within walking distance. Rosie Blowfiss is most certainly a hand full, but she's a great kid and non-superpowered so Cassie was always able to handle taking care of her without too much trouble.

Steve makes it a point to walk her home from work once or twice a week. He pesters her for her work schedule, pushing the matter gently until she relents and hands him a print out with the stipulation that her schedule is subject to change most of the time. Steve just grins as he takes the paper and tells her that he likes to plan things. From a guy who helped plan the storming of Normandy, that statement has some solid weight behind it.

Cassie rolls her eyes at him but doesn't make any of the jokes that she could and starts her walk home with Steve beside her.

These walks and the occasional stop for coffee are when they spend the most time together. They talk about anything they can think of. Cassie asks about Stark and the rest of the Avengers team and Steve asks her more questions about her background and abilities. Some of the questions he asks makes Cassie think he's been reading up on Greek and Roman mythology and she wonders when exactly he's finding the time.

She's glad and a little gratified that Steve is doing his best to understand her. However, some things in modern versions of mythology, especially things that have ended up on the internet are a little bit difficult to explain to an outsider. Like, if she ever in her existence has to explain how all of the gods are actually related-only-not to one another it will be _way_ too soon.

Godly DNA and familial relations goes above her pay grade. And considering her new salary, that's saying something.

Between everything else going on in her life, she doesn't get to patrol all that often. However, she's not getting attacked very much and most monsters seem to be steering clear of the city for the time being. She figures the world can continue to exist in safety without her searching out additional trouble.

Cassie spends the week leading up to her exams in a nearly impenetrable bubble of academia. Her hotel room becomes a veritable nest of papers and review notes and Cassie spends hours on end lying on her back staring at the ceiling as she listens to audio recordings of her professors giving lectures. She discovered long ago that that was the best revision method to employ given her dyslexia. She throws a tennis ball against the wall and catches it again repeatedly to stave off the ADHD and all in all that covers her review sessions and makes them productive.

It takes Steve knocking on the door of her hotel room with takeout in hand to break her from her study coma and Cassie lets him in. As he steps inside and looks around Cassie follows his gaze and for the first time in days she actually sees her hotel room. It's a mess of papers and notes and housekeeping hasn't been in for a few days so her meager possessions are scattered around the place.

"Hey," she greets. "Uh, sorry about the mess."

Steve smiles gently and gives a slight shake of his head. "It's no problem. I know you're busy studying." He holds up his takeout bag from which a delicious smell is wafting. "I just thought maybe you'd want dinner."

Cassie smiles back and moves to clear off some space at the coffee table. "Thank you so much," she says sincerely. "I don't think I've eaten anything real in like, days."

Once space is cleared Steve grabs dishes out of the cabinet and sets them out in the cleared table space. Then he begins to dish out the food and Cassie grabs her portion eagerly. "You have your first exam tomorrow right?" he enquires.

"Yeah," Cassie nods. "One per day for the rest of the week. Then I get a day to decompress on Sunday and Monday is moving day." Steve nods back and they both spend the next several minutes digging in to their food. Steve eats at least four times as much as a normal person because of his metabolism and Cassie is hungry enough to consume a cyclops' portion so the silence persists for quite a while as they eat.

When she's finished Cassie sits back and draws her feet up off the ground so that she's sitting criss-cross applesauce in her chair. Steve is still eating his noodles and Cassie reaches for a fortune cookie. She pops open the little sealed bag it's in and cracks it open, pulling out the little piece of paper inside. "You may find that your goals are soon within your reach," she reads out when she's worked out the words. "Huh. If I were playing the fortune cookie game that might be entertaining."

Steve frowns and swallows. "What's the fortune cookie game?"

His confusion brings a smile to her face and Cassie begins to explain. "It's just this thing someone made up to make fortune cookies inappropriate. You add the words 'in bed' to the end of each fortune." She shrugs and pops half of the cookie in to her mouth. "It's not real mature or anything but it's a little entertaining."

"Huh," Steve says. He pushes away his now empty plate and reaches for a fortune cookie for himself. He breaks it open and squints down at the fortune printed there. "Never be afraid to try new things," he reads. He glances up at her with raised eyebrows. "In bed."

It makes Cassie laugh which seems to have been Steve's goal because he smiles and pops the rest of his own cookie in to his mouth. "Are you moving in the same day as me?" she asks. "Or are you still going to be stuck here clearing things up? If not I figured maybe we could take the train together."

Steve tips his head. "I'm moving in the same time you are so that works. I'm just not sure how long I'll be staying in the city for."

"Barnes?" Cassie guesses. "You're starting to look for him." Steve nods and Cassie shifts so that she's sitting straighter in her seat. "Do you know where you're starting from?" she asks.

He nods, sketching his fingers across the table like he's drawing out his own mental battle plan. Cassie has seen Annabeth do the same kind of thing since she was ten years old. "You mentioned that you sent him to the Smithsonian to see the exhibit when he pulled me out of the river so I'm starting by reviewing the museum security footage for that one exhibition hall for the two weeks since SHIELD fell. Even if all that does is give me a time stamp it's a start."

Cassie considers this. "Are you sure you won't have any kind of problem with getting the footage? I'm not exactly sure what the museum policy is but most places are a little bit stingy with just handing out their security video."

"I do on occasion, abuse my celebrity," Steve admits with a combination of sheepishness and grim resignation. "I've been plastered all over the news lately. I figure it must be good for something. Besides, most of the exhibit is technically mine." He reaches for his glass. "Trademarking and all."

She gives a half smile at that. "Being you has it's advantages," she states, quoting from a Harry Potter movie. Steve gives a one armed shrug as he takes a sip of water. "So you're starting with the video footage," she says. "That's good. You'll be able to put a time stamp on things. I'm guessing you're big problem will be figuring out where he went after that."

"Exactly," Steve agrees. "Natasha is going to be sending me anything she can find. Sharon- you know, are not-a-nurse neighbor- is apparently working at the CIA now so she's discretely digging in to anything she can find on the Winter Soldier. Stark has his tech people doing the same with everything that got revealed in the SHIELD dump. Hopefully between all of that they'll be a lead I can follow to something more substantial."

Cassie reaches out and covers one of his hands with hers. "If you need my help just say so," she tells him. "I promised you that I'd help you find your friend if that was what we needed to do. So, just say the word and I'll tell Stark I can't start yet and you and me can hole up here after I graduate and go through leads and footage and whatever the hell else."

Steve brings his other hand over and covers hers, flipping the hand below hers to hold her hands between his. "And I can't ever tell you how much I appreciate that," he tells her, blue eyes wide and truthful. "But until I know where we're going to be looking, I don't want looking for Bucky to get in the way of you having a normal life."

"I've never had a normal life," Cassie says with half a laugh. It isn't actually funny though so she stops herself quickly. Steve doesn't crack a smile, just looks at her. The pressure of his hands around hers increases marginally. "I like that you want me to have a life," Cassie tells him. "That's more than a lot of the people I've been in contact with. But you should know after everything I've told you that I haven't had anything close to normal in my life since I was eight years old. When I said I'd help you I made a promise, and I plan on keeping it."

"Thank you," he says with a nod after her words have hung in the air for a moment. "I promise you I'll call the moment I have something."

The next half hour or so is spent on lighter conversation topics, like her upcoming exams and the reconstruction work Steve's been doing. She worries out loud over her exams and Steve reassures her and then together they verbally abuse a few different bureaucrats who are making life difficult for people they care about who are trying to do the right thing. It's therapeutic and by the time Cassie walks Steve to her door she feels lighter and happier and less anxious than she has for days.

As Steve passes in to the hallway he turns back to her to say goodbye and Cassie leans some of her weight against the doorframe, tilting her head to look up at him. It's possible she should start investing in some comfortable platform shoes or heels. Her feet might hurt but her neck would probably thank her in the long term. That or she should start carrying around a collapsable step stool. Surely Leo would make one for her.

"Thanks again for coming over," Cassie says. "And for bringing me dinner. I haven't looked away from or heard anything except for my exam notes in literal days. Taking a break was uh..." she isn't quite sure what the most appropriate word is. 'Nice' doesn't seem adequate, 'lovely' is too formal. "Reassuring," she says at last. Steve smiles and something in her that she hadn't known was out of place before shifts and settles.

He leans a bit on the wall outside the door, curling his shoulders over slightly to reduce the space between them. "You're welcome," he says softly. "I wanted-" he swallows. "You're always helping me. I wanted to do something for you."

Cassie gives him a small smile, making it as warm as she can. "You like taking care of people," she notes out loud.

Steve shrugs. "I always wanted to help people," he admits. "Before the serum I wasn't able to most of the time. Since then I can, and as soon as I started actually fighting I had a team of people to lead. First the Commandoes and now the Avengers." As he talks about his role his shoulders straighten and he stands to his full height, military posture engaging. "My team is my responsibility."

She cocks her head to the side. "I'm no one's responsibility but my own," she tells him, her voice light but firm. "That's how it's always been. I don't care who's team I'm on. My choices and actions are completely my own."

"I know," Steve says hurriedly. He shifts his weight uncomfortably, putting his hands inches pockets. "I meant-"

Cassie doesn't let him find whatever words he wanted. In all honesty she's about done with words for the moment. She thinks maybe it's time to provoke actions instead. "What exactly do you see me as Steve?" she asks. "Am I your teammate? Your doctor? Your friend? Do you see me as your responsibility? Because if tha-"

This time it's Steve who cuts her off.

One moment he's standing almost a foot away and the next he's so close he's filling her vision and she can feel the warmth emanating from his body and nearly wrapping around her. In the next second there's no 'nearly' about it and one of Steve's hands is cupping her cheek. Then his lips are pressed over hers and Cassie can't see anything any longer because her eyes have shut.

The world stops.

Steve lets out a shaky exhale that ghosts over her lips and Cassie finds that she's of the opinion that being far enough apart for them to breath separately is too far right now. With that in mind she surges upwards on to her toes, gripping his shoulder with one hand to haul herself upwards and closer to him. Steve rightful takes that as a cue to move his lips against hers, his tongue brushing lightly against the seam of her mouth.

Cassie opens her mouth against his and then everything is warmth and the cold electric burn of sensation making every square millimeter of her skin come alive below Steve's fingertips as his hands move, almost dreamily over her. One hand moves, sliding back from her jaw line and in to her hair, his fingers tangling in the golden strands. The other hand slips over her side, tracing each of her ribs through her shirt.

Her own hands aren't at all idle. With slow, easy, movements her fingers curve over his shoulders, cupping his neck, his jaw, and burying her fingers in the silken softness of his hair. Eventually she has to use one arm to loop around his shoulders and he takes her weight without question. She braces her other palm against his chest, pressing her palm over his heart. The beat pulses through his skin and in to her own fingers and acting without conscious thought her instincts or maybe powers, shift her own heartbeat to match his.

Sooner than she's like, Cassie's toes and ankle bones won't support the strain she's been putting them through and she begins to try to regretfully extricate herself from the embrace. Steve makes a quiet, instinctual noise of protest and grip he's taken on her hip tightens, keeping her pressed tightly to his body. The movement scrunches up her shirt and his fingers land against her bare skin. Cassie shudders as a wave of sensation washes over her skin and collects in the very center of her being. Another small noise transfers from his mouth and in to hers before it can ever great the open air and Steve's hand flattens against her skin, trailing upwards along the sensitive skin of her spine.

"Steve," she manages to murmur the next time she can draw breath. "Steve you're too tall... Can't reach..." Cassie is trying, though badly to explain that her toes are killing her and there's only so long the muscles in her legs will support this position. It's possible that he gets the point despite her lack of thorough description because he lets out a small hum that she feels in his chest. However, instead of breaking the kiss, he drops both hands to her hips and lifts her straight up.

The shock of the movement makes her gasp against his mouth but Steve seems too intent on kissing her to notice. He holds her a solid six inches off the ground at his head height with seemingly no effort, her body crushed in to his. _Well_ she thinks _that's certainly one method of problem solving._ And oh, Cassie is most definitely a fan of this method.

Unfortunately, no matter their collaborative problem solving skills, there comes a point when they both need to breath. When that moment comes they break apart slowly and regretfully and Cassie absolutely hates that this moment is ending. Steve doesn't go far though, leaving his forehead pressed against hers as he lowers her slowly back to the ground and they both try to get their breath back.

The fingers on her spine move slowly back down and Steve tucks her shirt back in to place before pressing that hand against the wall. His other hand moves from her hip up to her cheek. Steve's thumb brushes over her lips, bruised and tingling from his kisses and the movement is damn near _reverent_. He holds and touches her like she's precious, but not necessarily breakable and if Cassie had her choice she would never move from this spot or this moment.

She closes her eyes to try to hold on to the feeling, burning every detail about this one moment of time in to her brain. Steve brushes another kiss over her mouth and Cassie sighs when it's too brief a gesture to lean in to. "You're my girl," he says simply, answering her question from what feels like a lifetime ago. "If you want to be."

He almost blushes as the words leave his mouth and the fact that asking her too be exclusive makes him feel awkward when minutes ago he had his tongue in his mouth makes Cassie smile. "I would very much like to be your girl," she tells him. She can practically feel herself glowing and the grin on Steve's face makes him light up like a Christmas tree. She doesn't feel like she has to tell him that it's a two way street. Cassie knows that being his means he's hers and the feeling is both hugely all encompassing and very much small enough to be hers and only hers.

"I should go so you can get some sleep," Steve says but he doesn't make any move to back up.

Cassie nods. "Yeah, yeah you probably." She doesn't move either.

Steve lets out another rushing breath and kisses her once, twice more before tearing himself away. "I'll call you tomorrow," he promises.

"You'd better," she responds, her smile still in place.

He's backpedaling down the hallway away from her and his eyes have yet to leave her face. "I'll help you move!" he calls. "Goodnight!"

Cassie waves goodbye and when he's rounded the corner and out of sight she practically falls back through the door in to her room. The door closes behind her with a clack and Cassie stares blankly at the papers and all of her notes scattered throughout the space. She gives a deliberate shake of her head and decides to screw studying for the rest of the evening and just go to bed.

She wouldn't be able to concentrate anyway.

Despite that she takes her first exam the next morning and continues to take them as the week goes on. Sometimes Steve picks her up when the exams let out but when he doesn't Sam shoes up to do it instead. Privately, Cassie thinks it's possible that Steve's worried that someone will figure out who she is and how she's connected to him and come at her. He's been picking up a lot of media coverage lately and not all of it is positive.

Cassie doesn't try to bring it up. She knows she can defend herself and she's pretty sure that Steve knows she can too though not to what extent. Making sure someone walks her home from her exams when she's mentally exhausted is basically just a step to make him feel like he's doing something. She knows how frustrating it is to feel like your life's out of control and you have no way to protect the people you love so for now she's willing to play along. Besides, she can actually ditch Sam if she has to and Steve has told her in no uncertain terms that his next line of defense is Natasha.

Eventually her exams are over and she's passed them all with high marks. This means she's officially a doctor now and she celebrates the end of school with the rest of her graduating class. Everyone is happy and excited and spends most of their time telling each other what their plans are now. Most are becoming interns at different hospitals around the country or starting research positions. When people ask her what she'll be doing, Cassie tells them that she's starting a job in private medicine that comes with a strict NDA attached. Technically that isn't even a lie and she's not the only person who had to sign a contract promising they'd keep their mouth shut or be sued.

Steve, Sam, and Nat all come to her graduation but hang back from the crowd. No one from Camp could make it but the night before she'd received multiple cards and phone calls to congratulate her. Sally Jackson sends her and Paul's support with a large sack of all blue candy and a card that she's sure was illustrated by Rosie. Annabeth sent her a large congratulatory book and Percy sends a string of ocean pearls. Cards come from all of her other friends and her siblings in the Apollo cabin surprise her with an official card telling her that a star has been named after her.

When people ask her if she has anyone there for she tells them that her boyfriend is coming in late and will probably take a space at the back. When her name is called for her to walk across the stage and pick up her diploma she scans the crowd and catches Steve's eye and he grins at her, clapping hard. That should be all but as she shakes the last hand in a long line she glances back at the crowd and sees the last face she would ever expect to see at her graduation.

There in the front is her father Apollo, god of music, healing, and prophecy. He's fully restored to godliness and the form he's taken for the occasion is that of a man in his late twenties. It's better than him turning up as a teenager so Cassie won't complain but she won't lie and say she isn't a little shocked. His hair is a mass of carefully styled blonde curls and he's wearing sunglasses and a white button down over suite pants with a shiny golden tie.

Cassie blinks and when she opens her eyes again he's gone. She tries to shake it off and focus on he speech that the President of the college is making. At that moment it's her dearest hope that her father's presence here is nothing more than an idle wish on his part to check up on one of his children during an important milestone. Personal visits from gods have never in the history of time worked out well for demigods without repercussions.

Her father doesn't speak to her personally but she does see him again until just after she's thrown her graduation cap in to the air. She sees him standing ten feet away through a crowd of graduates jumping up and down in celebration. When he sees her looking Apollo grins and gives her a thumbs up. Then he points at her and she feels a warmth in her pocket as the tip of his finger glows slightly. Next he points over her shoulder and Cassie follows where he's pointing to see Steve waiting for her. Nat and Sam apparently had to duck out.

When she looks back her father is gone again but when she checks her pocket she's unsurprised to find a golden envelope addressed to her. She breaks the seal on the envelope with no small amount of trepidation and looks down at the writing. It takes her a moment to decipher the writing but when she does it reads;

 _Dear Cassie,_

 _My kid is so smart_

 _She graduated today_

 _I am so proud_

 _P.S. I'll see you soon._

Cassie isn't quite sure how to feel. On the one hand, her father actually came to her graduation and is _proud_ of her. Proud enough to actually say so in those words. On the other hand, the promise at the end of the letter hangs over her head like a dark shadow. Also the haiku is one syllable short.

She walks to Steve and he catches her up in to a kiss, spinning her around with her feet off the ground. For a moment she lets herself loose her worries to the celebratory feeling in the air but when Steve sets her down he immediately notices the paper gripped in her hand. "What's that?" he asks.

"It's a letter," Cassie tells him, proffering the paper so that he can read it. "From my father. He was here today."

Steve's eyebrows shoot up at that. "Your father the god?" he clarifies. Cassie nods in confirmation and Steve returns his eyes to the paper, reading the words much more quickly than she had been able to herself. 'What does that mean he'll see you soon?" he asks when he's done.

She bites at her lower lip. "I don't know," she admits. "I really want to hope that it's just because the gods like hanging out in New York. Remember I think I told you Olympus is anchored above the Empire State Building?" Steve's expression of slightly shocked confusion tells her that maybe she didn't but the information is out there now. "Knowing my luck it's probably not just that though," she says resignedly. "With gods it almost never is."

He reaches out and grips her shoulders, pushing her blonde curls back off of the shoulders of her gown. "From everything you've told me that's true, but there's also not a lot you can do about it." She opens her mouth to say something but he cuts her off. "We can worry about what it means tomorrow," he tells her firmly. "Today," he gestures at the happily excited crowd. "This is a victory." He smiles down at her and presses a sweet kiss to her temple. "Let's enjoy it okay?"

For a moment Cassie wants to push it but she also knows that the issue will still exist to worry about later so for the moment she gathers all of her stress and releases it on a long exhale. She looks up in to Steve's blue blue eyes that are looking down at her with warmth and pride and maybe more and manages to smile back, nodding once. Steve pulls her along to Sam's place where he and Nat have managed to throw a small celebration and Cassie lets herself be distracted with excellent food, cake, and the fact that she's spending an important day with people who care about celebrating it with her.

However, nothing can quite push her fathers words out of her head.

 _P.S. I'll see you soon._

 **A/N: So there you have it. I'm really sorry about the gap in posting but I've just started college so I've been pretty busy. Because of that updates are a likely to be farther apart from now on. Anyway, what did you guys think? I wanted Cassie to start being more involved in the team and I thought it was about time for her and Steve's first kiss. Did I write it okay? I'm open to notes. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxxox**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: Instead of actually saying the words I'm just going to point you to my empty bank account and maybe laugh hysterically.**

When the next weekend comes, Cassie spends the first part of it packing her life in to boxes she can get to New York. She considers throwing some things out and donating her furniture given that she can't really think of a way to transport it on the train. This idea is obliterated when Steve shows up to help with the packing driving a legitimate moving van. Apparently it's a present from Tony Stark. Steve says that the man is now playing around with vehicle design.

Frankly Cassie doesn't really care where this van has come from. It makes moving easy, is provided to her for free, and lets her bring all of her stuff to her new life in New York. There isn't really a lot she cares about bringing, but her couch is awesome and she really likes her bookshelves and coffee table. The rest of her furniture was second hand when she got it so she decides it won't make the trip with her.

Steve and Cassie get all of the furniture moved in about half an hour and the rest of Cassie's storage locker can be condensed down to exactly six large cardboard boxes. Outside of that she has a duffle bag of all of her clothes and a single backpack. When all of her things have been loaded in to the van there's still room to spare and the entire process has taken less than four hours.

"So what else?" Steve asks when the locker is empty. He's looking around like he expects more of her belongings to suddenly pop out of the walls at him ready to be packed away.

The expression of expectation on his face makes Cassie smile a little. It's a small smile, and not her happiest. "That was it," she tells him. She gestures to the backpack that still rests at her feet. "What's in the van, this backpack, and my bag back at the hotel. That's everything I own."

Steve crosses the room and sits on the floor next to her with his back resting against the wall. "Can I ask why?" he asks. "I mean, I understand why you wouldn't have had much before from what you've told me... but you've been settled and in school here for years. You've built a life. Why don't you have..." he searches for a way to articulate what he wants to say. "More of it?"

Cassie scoots along the floor so that she can rest her back on the wall beside him and draws her knees up to her chest as she considers the question. "Habit?" she offers. "Probably?" She has more that she wants to say but how she says it is important. She hasn't said anything about other demigods and Steve hasn't asked even though he might have questions. Cassie's grateful for that because while she almost can't stand the thought of straight out lying to Steve she also can't expose all of her friends and family. So far it's one of the topics where they seem to have silently agreed not to push.

"The way I grew up involved moving around a lot," Cassie says carefully. "While that was going on having a lot of stuff wasn't just hard, it was basically impossible. Even when I finally got settled at-" she shuts her mouth and swallows. Steve looks at her and places a hand on her kneecap, wedging it below her elbow where it rests on her jeans. "At my school," she decides on, forging ahead. "I shared living space with a lot of other kids. Then I was living out of dorm rooms and tiny apartments. Here in D.C, that apartment building we both lived in," she shrugs. "That was the nicest place I've ever lived in." Cassie gestures towards the van. "This is the most I've ever had that's mine."

The words come out with more raw emotion than she means for them to and there's a long moment of softly ringing silence after they've been spoken. Steve doesn't seem to know what to say and Cassie doesn't know where to take the conversation next either so she lets the quiet stretch. "Hey," Steve says, breaking the quiet. He reaches out and brushes some of her hair behind her ear, cupping her jaw. "You've got more than that now," he tells her.

The words aren't really a statement, not with that level of conviction. No. When words are that sincere, they're a promise. It's dangerously close to a vow and Cassie thinks they might both be edging along a cliff they aren't quite ready to jump in to.

Cassie covers his hand where it rests on her cheek and takes it with both of hers. She threads their fingers together and cradles their joined hands against her chest over her heart and enjoys the simple warmth that the nearness of the gesture brings. Cassie ducks her head and kisses the back of his hand. "We both do," she says quietly.

Steve's eyes drop shut for a moment at her words and then he's ducking down the same way she did. Only instead of kissing her knuckles his lips land against hers. It's not a light and simple kiss like most of the ones they've shared since their first. This one feels heavier, weighted with the serious nature of the conversation that preceded it and Cassie can feel herself sinking in to it as Steve's lips move to cradle hers. She slips her tongue along his lower lips and it's like she's entered a passcode as his mouth falls open below hers.

His hands extricate themselves from hers and Cassie finds her fingers scrunching in to the cotton of his tee shirt in their search for something to hold on to. One of Steve's arms slides around her back and the other hooks below her bent knees and a moment later she's sitting sideways against his chest half on the floor and half in his lap. The adjustment happens to quickly and smoothly that Cassie barely even has time to register her surprise at the shift.

Even as the back of her mind is wondering at the logistics of the shift Steve's arms are are wrapping around her waist and the warmth his body is throwing off surrounds her completely, chasing away the chill in the air and making goosebumps pop up over her skin at the temperature contrast. She shivers and pushes closer in to his chest and one of her hands slides down, bunching the fabric of his shirt further and becoming pinned against his stomach where she can feel the muscles expand and contract in rhythm with his breath.

Moving on instinct Cassie moves her free hand from the shoulder of his shirt down in to the neck of his shirt to press her palm over the skin that covers the place where his heart beats. Her entire being shudders as her body adjusts to the rhythm of his and it feels like a piece of her that doesn't always connect has shifted and become secure. An electric zap explodes like a firework in her stomach sending sparks skittering down in to her abdomen and up through her stomach, ribs, and heart.

It's impossible for her to know what Steve feels but he makes a noise that doesn't form all the way because their mouths are still a mess of lips, and tongues, and teeth that somehow fit together without jamming. For a moment his entire body seems to fold around her and she's warm and his body against hers is solid and yet soft at the same time. Cassie thinks she might be happy to never move again.

Then there's a loud metallic clanging sound and they both jump. Cassie bites her own lip so hard she can actually taste blood and Steve cracks his head against the wall. He reaches up to rub it with a colorful swear that could only ever come from a WWII vet and if he were someone else Cassie would be worried about a concussion. As it is, Cassie thinks checking for a dent in the wall might be more to the point.

Cassie takes in a shuddery breath and runs her fingers through her hair distractedly as she tries to regulate her heart again as it no longer beats in time with his. "Gods we need to go," she moans regretfully.

A look at Steve reveals that his eyes are shut and he seems to be trying to count his breaths. "Do me a favor," he says. "Make that argument to me after you stand up."

The words and the tone he says them in makes Cassie burst out laughing. She thinks that it must be easy for people who know Steve's history as a national icon to forget that underneath all of that is a fairly normal guy from Brooklyn, and right now he's a fairly normal kid from Brooklyn with a girlfriend. The fact that that girlfriend is _her_ kind of makes Cassie want to hum a cheerful tune.

She clambers off of his lap and almost laughs harder when Steve's fingers drag against hers like what he really wants is to pull her back down in to his lap again. "Come on," she says, standing up and brushing down her clothes. "I'm guessing you don't wan to spend more time in the headlines than you have to and I for one am not particularly eager to see my face on TMZ."

"You know that there is a very real possibility that that will happen at some point?" Steve checks as he pushes on to his feet and brushes off his own jeans.

Cassie shrugs a shoulder and scoops her bag up on to her shoulder. "I know," she says. "And to tell you the truth I'm expecting it. But I think that a few of the benefits of working for Stark will be his legal and P.R teams. When we're ready to tell people, I think we should talk to them first."

Steve regards her and a small smile has worked it's way on to his face. "That seems smart. Very logical."

"Well I know how you like to plan," Cassie says playfully. "I figure this will be a nice way for you to utilize your skills without getting shot at." They make their way to the door and are out in the hallway when Cassie says. "

"Not getting shot at might be boring," Steve says, playing along. "I might not know what to do if my life doesn't involve some danger."

Cassie cocks her head as they exit the storage facility and make their way towards where they parked the van. "Well," she says. "I suppose if the clever and controlled way of things looks to boring we can always just go for a nice walk together somewhere public with lots of teenagers and their phones on a slow news day and take our chances. Maybe we could even wear some Captain America shirts to make it obvious."

He groans at her words as they get in to the van and Steve puts it in drive. "Do you know how strange it is to have merchandise?"

Cassie frowns as she retroactively puts on her seat belt. It's a little late since the car is already moving and it won't make much of a difference to her in an accident anyway but she figures the last thing they need right now is to be in the news cycle under the header 'Captain America Ticketed by Local Cop.' "Didn't you have that in the 40s? Posters and Star Spangled Man with a Plan and all that?" The look of distaste on Steve's face at his former public catchphrase makes her break down laughing. "Gods if you could see your face right now," she says around her giggles.

Steve suffers her laughing at his expense for a minute and she thinks she can see the corners of his mouth twitching towards a smile. "Yes," he says eventually in a tone of extremely collected dignity. "There was definitely merchandising in the forties. What wasn't there in the forties was quite this level of mass production. I signed some posters, took pictures with some politicians, I never saw my face on a lunch box or-" he looks at her pointedly. "A tee shirt."

"Fair enough," Cassie concedes. They pull up in front of the hotel and she jumps out. She runs upstairs to pick up her bag and checks out at the front desk before sliding back in to the car.

"All set?" Steve asks.

Cassie nods. "Completely," she says. "Let's go get started on a new life. Big Apple here we come for- well. Not the first time for either of us I guess." She blinks over at him curiously. "When exactly was the last time you went back? Christmas?"

"Not exactly," he says. "I've had to go back and forth a few times since we exposed SHIELD to deal with the fall out. And I have a little bit of input on the design for the Tower. I don't always get along with Stark but he seems pretty invested in building an actual working base for the team. He waned to be sure we'd have everything we needed." He shrugs. "The armory and gym are pretty well equipped."

The news makes Cassie perk up a bit. Not many mortal gyms come stocked with the kind of equipment she needs to train. It's just not quite durable enough. However, if the stuff Stark has is designed for someone with the kind of strength Steve or Thor possesses then chances are good that she can get a work out in without having to hold back or put her life at risk. "Do you know if there's an archery range?" she asks as they make their way out of the city.

Steve doesn't look over at her because his eyes are on the road but his eyes flick up to meet hers in the mirror. "Well Barton is going to be living there at least part time so probably. Is that," he gestures vaguely. "Part of what you can do? I don't think I've ever heard you talk about it."

"Yeah," Cassie confirms with a nod. "Perfect aim. Something I got from my father. I guess you could call it a gift, or a blessing, but either way the ability is mine now." She shrugs, "I don't think much about how it works, but it has it's uses. Better than poetry anyway."

This time Steve really does turn to look at her despite the traffic. Cassie supposes if anyone is capable of the reflexes needed to drive safely despite distraction it's probably Steve Rogers the Super Soldier. "How expansive is it?" he asks. "Does it work with anything?"

His voice is interested and analytical and Cassie realizes that at this point it's less Steve asking his girlfriend about her past and more Captain America assessing a team mate. She answers anyway because as long as she can recognize that the dynamic as shifted she doesn't mind too much that it has. She knows she can change it back when she needs to and no matter which version of Steve she tells this to, it's still all the same man.

"Range weapons only," Cassie clarifies. "I'm kind of crap with short range stuff. Knives are okay if I'm throwing them but not so much hand to hand. I can hit anything with a gun but I don't really like to use them. Less control," she explains. "Other than that, if it's a launched projectile and I have the right launching mechanism for it, I can hit whatever I want wherever I want to." She shoots him a crooked grin that would have mad Annabeth say that her Mercury is showing. "This includes basketball by the way. Between me and Barton you might have the beginnings of a company team."

Steve cracks a grin and she knows she's managed to break the Captain America mode. "Now that's a corporate function I'd be happy to go to," he says.

For a while they kill time on the drive by chatting about the city that is about to become their new home for the second or third time in both of their lives. Cassie tells a few stories about her time in school, both in New York and California. It's a little bit trickier to do without mentioning certain things they've both non-verbals agreed not to talk about, but she manages. Steve talks a bit about his time in Brooklyn as a kid, and his perspective is fascinating to her. Cassie makes a mental note to introduce him to Nico and Hazel sometime in the future after she's figured out how to bring up the existence of other demigods.

After that they kill some more time by picking through the list of things Steve has in his journal that he still has yet to experience in the future. Cassie doesn't know who's been giving him these suggestions but some of them were definitely jokes played by Tony Stark. She's amused when Steve reveals that all of Stark's suggestions have been starred with red pen and Cassie has fun weeding through which of them are serious and which can be thrown out. She also adds on a few of her own suggestions.

It means a lot to her that Steve trusts her to go through the book like this. After the forth or fifth time she asks if he's sure about adding one of her suggestions he tells her to write in anything she wants. To her it feels like a sign of trust and it's one she files away to savor the feeling the moment brings.

Once they've got through the whole book together Cassie decides that while they have time to kill they might as well get started on the list they have. She pulls out her phone and hooks it in, connecting it to the vehicles car system. She picks a Beatles mixed album playlist and for the next hour or so the car is filled with the sound of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

When the music ends Steve is quiet for a long moment as though he's absorbing the effect. She watches his expression. This right here is what she likes about music, the way it absorbs in to a person and can make something in them shift, even for just a small moment in time. "When did that come out?" he asks. "When did they make the music?"

"They formed in nineteen-sixty in Liverpool England," Cassie tells him. "They lasted ten years. Then Yoko happened."

Steve frowns. "Who?"

"Yoko Ono," she clarifies. When Steve still looks confused she just shakes her head. "A woman one of the guys in the band married and it kind of broke up the group. Don't worry about it too much. Just know that if someone calls you the Yoko Factor it is _not_ a compliment."

"Noted," Steve says.

He's still frowning a little in confusion and with a jolt Cassie realizes that having been born after a decade full of events and learning them second hand is different from missing the decade entirely despite having been born before it happened. The amount of blanks in Steve's personal knowledge of history for the decades he should have been able to witness first hand must be some horrible combination of frustrating, scary, and blackly-nostalgic.

Cassie reaches over and puts one of her hands on top of his where it rests on the gear shift. He flips his hand over to cradle hers and their fingers twist and interlock. "I could-" she starts and then swallows. "I could tell you more about it," she offers. "I don't know too much more off of the top of my head, but I could look some things up if you wanted to know."

She can see the denial forming on Steve's mouth before he gives the words he plans to use a voice and she tightens her grip a little. Steve glances back at her and sees her expression. Cassie doesn't know what her face looks like but it must be something outside of the norm because some of the automatic stubbornness that creeps in to his face whenever he's offered help relaxes and the rigidity in his jaw softens. Instead of refusing he nods at her. "Okay," he says. "I think- I think there's more to catching up on what I missed than just going through the music." He squeezes her hand gently and gives her a quick smile. "Tell me."

The moment feels like maybe it shouldn't be broken but it also needs to be continued so Cassie pulls her phone towards her and types a few key words in to her search engine. When she's found a solid source of information she begins to read out loud to him. She has to stop a few times as she goes to make sure she's got the words right. Cassie goes for as long as she can, but eventually she has to stop because the words and letters are swimming off the page and have started performing cartwheels in her vision.

When she explains the problem to Steve by saying he has dyslexia he doesn't seem pitying or judgmental. "What's that?" he asks.

"I don't think they had a name for it when you were growing up," Cassie tells him. "Remember when we talked about what it would have been like if I'd grown up when you did?" Steve nods. "Well, I probably would have been labeled slow or challenged," she says. "Dyslexia is just the name for my problem. It's like, there's a way letters are supposed to be configured on the page to make sense and my brain doesn't read that program. I see the letters and they don't stay where they're supposed to on the page by the time my brain starts trying to understand them," she shrugs. "It makes reading and writing a bit more complicated."

Steve frowns. "I'm sorry."

Cassie mostly brushes that off. "It's not your fault. If anything I can blame my Dad and Grandfather. The reason I'm dyslexic in the first place is that my brain was hard wired to understand Latin and Ancient Greek instead of English. To my brain, understanding English is like trying to feed in the wrong kind of code in to a computer program. You can teach the machine to read it right but originally the program just rejects it because it can't read the other coding language."

"That's," Steve looks like he doesn't quite know how to put what he wants to say in to words. "Insane."

"Pretty much," Cassie agrees easily. "A lot of things about me are. Sorry about that."

They take an exit in to New York. "Well I was frozen for nearly seventy years and ended up a national icon. Now it turns out that my best friend from the forties is actually alive with amnesia and I spend my time fighting aliens and gods and I recently brought down my own intelligence organization," Steve points out. "I can run faster for longer and lift more weight than anyone else alive. I heal in minutes and can punch through walls." He shoots her a smile. "A lot of things about me are insane too."

After a moments consideration Cassie tips her head and smiles back at him. "Our first date brining down a government agency I guess," she concludes. "Though we did go for dinner once you were out of the hospital, and I'm pretty sure dinner is normal."

"Very normal," Steve agrees. "And we've eaten take out and talked and I helped you move. According to Sam all of that's pretty normal for dating these days."

Cassie grins. "Definitely. And now we're even road-tripping with good music. According to every romantic comedy I've ever watched that's like the most normal couple thing to do. Although," she says holding up a finger. "We may need to make a stop for road food at the next rest stop."

At her words Steve throws on a blinker and changes lanes as a sign proclaims a gas station at the next exit. "I think we can make that happen."

When they reach the station Cassie pops out of the car and bounces on her toes to stretch out her legs. Ten minutes later they're both back in the car with junk food and coffee. Cassie offers to drive but Steve tells her he's enjoying it and she props her feet up on the dashboard and occupies herself by separating a bag of M&Ms in to color order and arranging them in to little patterns. She hands them to Steve a handful at a time and her organization makes hims smile. The next pattern she makes is his shield out of the multi colored candy, leaving blank spaces for the white parts.

"So I was wondering," Cassie says as they cross the bridge in to Manhattan. "Are we paid for by the government still? Or do we all work for Stark now?"

Steve shrugs. "I'm pretty sure Stark's paying for everything now," he says. "But for God's sake don't say in front of Stark that we work for him. It's going to be hard enough to deal with him once we've all moved in to the Tower. Although," he pauses as though he's just been struck by a thought. "The government does technically owe me money."

"Did they never sort out your paycheck before you went in to the ice?" Cassie asks with a smile. "Do they owe you back pay?"

She's making a joke but Steve nods seriously. "Actually they do," he says. "The government passed a law that all soldiers declared Missing or Killed in Action who were then recovered alive would be owed pay for the time they were gone for," he shrugs. "I was gone for nearly seventy years and now here I am alive and healthy. If I felt like filing the paperwork, they'd have to pay me."

Slowly Cassie begins to work through the math as she comprehends what he's actually telling her. "So that's roughly seventy years of Captain's pay on a quarterly pay scale," she says out loud. "Plus the raises you would have gotten every few years. Then adding any of the extra money you got for the parachuting and special operations training. And then adjusting everything for inflation." She concludes. "What would that even be? Like a million dollars?"

Steve shifts uncomfortably and Cassie can see the back of his neck flush red. "More like three," he mutters.

" _Million?_ " Cassie asks, her voice coming out much more squeakily than she intends for it to. "Seriously?"

Steve is still looking uncomfortable as they approach the Tower. "A lot of that is because of the special operations training and then the inflation adjustment," he explains. "Besides, it's not like I've done the paperwork for it yet."

Cassie realizes suddenly that her mouth is hanging open a little ways and she shuts it with a click. She swallows as she absorbs this new information. Apparently, not only is she dating a real live superhero national icon, that same guy is also a millionaire. It's a lot to take in but Cassie feels pretty motivated to get over it given that the bomb she'd dropped on him when they'd first started dating was that she was a demigod. "Okay," she says finally. "Possible millionaire. Right."

A few minutes later they're pulling in to the security booth that guards the entrance to Stark's private parking garage. They're waved through after presenting identification, which in Cassie's opinion is probably not strictly necessary for Steve given that he's almost literally one of the most recognizable person on the planet. As far as she knows technology has yet to reach the point of being able to produce Mission Impossible style face masks.

Though given that she's about to start working for Tony Stark, maybe she shouldn't write off the possibility without some kind of proof. Unfortunately, proof of lack of existence generally took longer to find than proof of existence. She'd probably have to go through all of Stark's files and R&D labs to be sure and frankly that seems like a bigger time commitment than she's willing to commit.

They park the van and Steve grabs Cassie's duffle bag before she can. At this point Cassie knows better than to fight him on the gesture so she just rolls her eyes and grabs her backpack, swinging it over her shoulder. They leave the rest of her things in the car for now and Cassie suspects that Star probably has a team of movers lying in wait somewhere to swarm the vehicle once they're out of sight.

Stark's elevator is just as slick and well designed as absolutely everything else he owns and Cassie momentarily wonders at the detail of the wood paneling and chrome. She's also pretty sure the elevator music being played is ACDC. The whole experience has her hoping fervently that the entire building isn't designed with quite this much of Stark's personality involved. Cassie grateful for this job and everything that comes with it so she's willing to get over a lot, but she may have to redesign her apartment so she's not living in Starkville if she's staying long term.

As she thinks that she's distracted by the feeling of Steve taking her hand. First she looks down at their interlocking fingers and then she looks up at him. He's wearing a nervous kind of smile and she returns it. He squeezes her hand once, hesitant, asking without words if she's sure. Cassie catches sight of his reflection in the polished paneling, tall next to her own small, blurred, form. He's inclined towards her like she's centering him and Cassie shifts her hand to grip his more firmly.

For once in her life, Cassie is actually planning for the long term.

Maybe forever kind of long term.

The doors open with a ping and they both step out in to a huge space that looks like a very spacious high end lounge or living room. There's low furniture made of black leather and Cassie can see a bar down at one end of the space. If she squints she can see several long divots in the floor and decides right then and there never to ask how they got there. One wall seems to be completely made out of glass and Cassie lets herself be drawn in by the view until it looks like all of Manhattan is spread out below her.

The city seems to glitter from this high up and everything looks organized and neat. The light at this time in the day is Cassie's favorite because it makes the very air look golden. It reminds her of the glow that used to come from Cabin Seven after dark at Camp Half Blood. She closes her eyes and breaths deeply, letting the warmth spread across her skin and feels calm and centered in a way nothing else does.

She spins and beams at Steve. "This is amazing!" she says brightly. Her smile is so wide that it's actually making her cheeks hurt.

Steve isn't looking at the view though. He's staring at her looking dazed, like she's something wonderful and amazing and he can't quite believe she's real. Steve is looking at her the way she's seen Percy look at Annabeth. Like she's everything.

Cassie doesn't know what to do in the face of that kind of look so instead of speaking she holds her hand out to him and beckons him over to her. Steve puts down her duffle bag and crosses the space towards her in four long steps. Instead of taking her hand he wraps his arm around her waist and Cassie lets herself fold in to his side. She shuts her eyes and puts her head on his chest, soaking in the light and the moment and everything about it is good.

Then, as she thinks may soon become typical, the moment is smashed with the baseball bat that is Tony Stark. "Now this," he drawls from the doorway. "Is adorable. Seriously guys this," he gestures at them. "Total Hallmark moment. Do we have golden retriever puppies anywhere? Maybe a wheat field for you to go skipping through. He approaches them as he speaks and reaches out, tugging a lock of Cassie's hair where it curls loosely near her shoulder blades. Cassie swats his hand away and frowns at him with her best 'Dude what the hell' face. "God you two will have tiny little all American cherub children."

Steve frowns at the children comment but Cassie pushes past. Long experience has taught her that people who use sarcasm the way that Tony does can only be dealt with by either giving as good as you got or by being unaffected. Unfortunately both of those options go against Steve's entire nature so Cassie moves to keep everything moving before something can go wrong. "That depends," she says coolly. "Do you have a black room of alcohol and regret to set the move where you hang out?"

Her assessment is proved accurate when Stark takes the comment in stride and rolls with it. "Not a room," he corrects. "I keep a house out in Jersey for my depression and regretful angst. The rest of the time I live seven floors up from this one with Pepper there to keep me from succumbing to life's dinner things. Like alcohol and you know, fun." He claps his hands together. "Meanwhile labs R&D and your office," he says pointing at her. "Eighth floor. The rest of the Merry Men and Romanov will be living on floor twenty-two besides Banner. We had fifteen specially reinforced for anything involving the Other Guy."

Even though Cassie doesn't think isolating Dr. Banner is the best idea, she can see the wisdom to Stark's logic. Besides, if everything Steve's told her about the good doctor is true, the man probably insisted on the separation himself. She makes a mental note to herself to make sure she checks in with Banner soon and often. Cassie has the feeling that the psychology courses she took might pay off sooner than she had thought they would when she was taking them.

"Tony!" a new voice calls from the door. Cassie turns and gets her first real life viewing of Pepper Potts. The woman is as pressed and neat now as she has ever looked in magazines or on screen. She wears a business suite and a pair of pumps that are damn near tall enough to give Cassie vertigo. She walks across the floor with sure strides and her heals click loudly on the hard surface. "I hope you're playing nice," she darts at Tony as she draws even with them.

"When am I not nice," Stark demands to know.

Pepper rolls her eyes and suddenly Cassie finds herself liking this older woman even if they have only just met. "Only when you breath in, or out," she says. She extends her hand and Cassie shakes it. Peppers grip is firm and she levels Cassie with a small but genuine smile. "Pepper Potts," she introduces. "And you're Cassie Morgenstern. I've read your file." She explains before Cassie can ask.

Cassie hauls in a breath and lets it out slowly. At this point she's trying to adjust to the fact that she _has_ a file in the first place. She guesses that like with TMZ, she's just going to have to get used to it. "Well I hope it was complimentary," she says. "Nice adjectives and all."

Her acceptance wins her a wider smile from Pepper. "I can't tell you how happy I am to have another girl around," she says candidly. "Natasha is around sometimes but not often, and she's really not one for casual conversation."

With Pepper there Tony's impulses are curbed and his energy seems more directed. She and Steve are given the quickest possible tour of the building and even having skipped several floors that solely contain garage space and labs the whole thing takes almost an hour. There's a full gym, a target range, a pool, and all of the medical equipment Cassie's ever heard of and some she's unashamed to admit she hasn't given that Stark has designed it himself. There'll be a learning curve but Cassie hasn't survived this long without being able to adapt and overcome.

Eventually Steve and Cassie are dropped off on their floor with a set of key cards and a rather suggestive wink from Stark which earns him a smack upside the head from Pepper and an apologetic look thrown their way as the elevator door slides shut. "Let's check out yours first," Cassie says, looking at the doors in front of them. Stark said that the floors where the team lives are set up with three or four apartments each. Cassie's apartment is supposedly between Steve's and Sam's. The apartment on Steve's other side is empty and no one says so but Cassie is under the impression it's reserved for Barnes when Steve finds him.

Steve unlocks his apartment door with the pass card and by pressing his palm against the door to push it open. There's a mechanized click before the door opens and they step through. As soon as they're over the threshold the lights come on inside and a smooth male British accent says. "Good evening Captain Rogers and Miss Morgenstern. Local weather in Manhattan is seventy-four degrees and sunny. Local time is seven thirty nine P.M. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask."

The voice is pleasant enough but the sound of it makes Cassie jump about a foot in to the air. "Who the Hades was that?!" She spins on the spot, looking around at the walls and ceiling to figure out where the voice had come from. "Hello? Who was just talking."

"I am Jarvis," the disembodies voice says from the ceiling. "I am an AI designed by Mr. Stark. I run the house. I can be accessed verbally from anywhere within the building. Simply address me by name and I will respond."

Cassie turns to Steve wide eyed. For his part, Steve looks like someone is repeatedly giving him paper cuts. Not really in pain, but definitely irritated and not enjoying the experience very much. "This building is run by a robot," Cassie hisses. "No one told me that this building was run by a computerized robot. Did you know that the building was run by a robot?"

Steve just shakes his head. "I knew that Tony had him in his suite and in his place down in Malibu before it got blown up. He didn't mention he was installing Jarvis here."

There's a moment of quiet for the both of them to adjust to the new addition to their living situation. Eventually Cassie shakes her head and straightens her shoulders. "Right well, I'll just pretend that there's a nice elderly British man in a fancy suite hanging out in a room upstairs being our butler or something." She puts her backpack down next to the couch and crosses to the window. It takes up the entire wall like the ones downstairs and Cassie supposes that the whole side of the building must be glass. The air-conditioning costs must be through the roof but Stark probably didn't notice little things like climate control bills.

"Oh and we are never watching Terminator while we live here." Cassie tells Steve over her shoulder. "Or that one with the computer called Hal, or Transformers. Really I don't think we should watch anything that involves machines rising up and taking over the world."

Steve just shrugs and drops her duffle bag. "I can live with that." He wanders over in to the kitchen which is really only separated form the living room by a large kitchen island surrounded by diner style stools. Cassie decides not to ask if Steve's even heard of the movies she just listed and instead flops experimentally on to the couch to see how comfortable it is.

She amuses herself for a few minutes by testing out the other furniture and finds it all to be comfortable to the point of ridiculousness. However the room set up is also basic enough that Steve can move it around and add other pieces if he wants to. Cassie wouldn't be surprised if her own apartment is a bit smaller than this, but she doesn't care. Whatever her apartment is like it's sure to be the nicest place she's ever lived in.

Next she makes her own investigation of the kitchen. The appliances are all stainless steel and the cabinets are made of warm looking reddish wood. The counters are some material Cassie can't identify by sight but it's highly polished and shiny and smooth under her fingers. An investigation of the drawers and lower cabinets reveals that they're already filled with pots, pans, dishes, glasses, and flatware. Steve must have moved all of his things in at some earlier point. Either that or Stark decided to go the extra mile to make sure the residents of his tower were well supplied.

The other cabinets are too high for Cassie to reach them from the floor so she kicks of her shoes and pulls herself up so she's perched on the counter top and through a little careful maneuvering she's able to get the first one open without falling off. Her eyebrows shoot up at the discovery that these cabinets aren't empty either. Someone's done basic grocery shopping for Steve in advance of his arrival.

"Steve!" she calls, hopping off the counter. She wanders down the hallway off of the main room, investigating as she goes. There's a closet door that when opened reveals a water and dryer unit and another one that seems to be set up as a maintenance closet. "Steve?" she calls again, more quietly this time given that she must be fairly close now. The apartment is big, and Cassie has seen Olympians bend physics to make themselves more space, but somehow she doubts Stark has that kind of pull just yet.

"In here," Steve's voice calls from a half-open door at the end of the hall.

Cassie steps through it and lets the dark polished wooden door fall shut behind her. She stops there though because this is clearly the bedroom. As is evident by the king sized mattress resting in it's fancy bed frame against the wall. However, the thing about the bed that really stops her is that it's been made up with a set of bed linens that exactly match the color and patterns of her own.

And that's not where the strangeness stops.

Cassie's bookshelves have been set up against one wall and filled with every book she'd packed from her apartment in D.C. The photo she has of her mother and grandmother is sitting framed on one of the two bedside tables. Her amazingly comfortable couch is against the wall of windows, making it a perfect place to relax in natural light and her coffee table sits in front of it.

Slowly Cassie makes her way over to wear Steve is standing frozen in front of the open doors of his closet. She has a feeling she might know what's inside of it that has him locked in to place but it's still a surprise when she sees it. Her clothes are hung up beside Steve's, her few dresses and skirts hanging near his jackets and suites. Their jackets are packed in together and her running shoes, boots, and sandals are lined up along the floor next to his sneakers and running shoes.

She swallows as she searches for words. She glances at Steve and from the look on his face she thinks he might be panicking. If she had been wondering weather this was Steve's idea, she isn't now. "Well," she says slowly. "I guess the moving people must have thought we were living together. Maybe Stark said something..." She hasn't known the man for very long but it seems like the kind of personally invasive and meddlesome thing he might do. "Or maybe the movers messed up. Hold on, I'm going to go check the hallway,"

Steve nods mutely and Cassie quickly ducks out of the room and makes her way back out through to the main room and in to the main hall of the floor. A quick inspection reveals that there are only two other doors on the floor rather than the previously alluded to three. A brief pace-off also shows that the middle apartment belonging to Steve takes up approximately twice the hall space as the other two.

With these measurements made she steps back in to the apartment and slips through the space back down the hallway to the bedroom. Steve has drifted to the window and is looking out at the city with an expression of utmost concentration like the key to the answer to his most crucial question is down there somewhere. She doesn't go to him yet and instead follows a whim and steps sideways in to the en suite bathroom. An examination of the cabinets and counter top shows that all of her toiletries have been unpacked and arranged. The sight of her shampoo sitting on the shelf beside Steve's aftershave freezes her in place for a moment, but one of the two of them has to be functional and Steve has already called the position of shocked immobility.

So, she takes a steadying breath and shuts the bathroom cabinet with a snap. She steps out and the light goes off behind her without her having to throw a switch. Cassie makes sure that her steps make noise to avoid startling Steve farther and takes a spot seated at the edge of the bed with her legs crossed beneath her. For a few interminable moments silence ticks by and Cassie counts her own heartbeats.

When she hits eighty-three her A.D.H.D kicks in and she can't come up with any more cat's cradle patterns to go through without any string to use. "So..." she says, stretching the word out in to the silence. "Do you have any kind of timeline for the power of speech? Because we probably need to have a conversation, and that might be hard without words. And since neither of us knows ASL and I don't really know where to find dry erase boards..." Steve is moving again, turning towards her and Cassie lets her words fade out.

"I'm sorry," Steve says, his voice seems to crack a little at the lack of use over the last few minutes. "I don't mean to make anything more-" he gestures vaguely around them to the space that has somehow become set up as the both of theirs instead of just his. "I don't know what to do right now."

Cassie throws up her hands. "Well I don't either!" she says. "Stark apparently decided that we were living together before we did and converted two apartments on this floor in to one big one so one of those doors off of the living room probably goes to a guest room and somewhere around here there is almost definitely office space and my couch is here in front of your window and my clothes are in your closet and my shampoo is next to your aftershave and until now I didn't even know what kind of aftershave you used until ten minutes ago..."

She's ranting and she knows it but now that she's started talking and the words are coming out she doesn't think she can make them stop. Steve is now moving again and he reaches her in two steps. He kneels down in front of her on the floor and grips her hands. His grip is just on this side of too tight and the pressure is grounding so Cassie grips back. If her mini-freak out has accomplished one thing it's that Steve can now have a turn being the calm one.

"What do you want to do?" Steve asks quietly. "I can talk to Stark. We'll figure it out." Cassie hauls in a breath and exhales on a ten count because Steve is now in fixer mode and while that's clearly more comfortable for him it doesn't leave her a relaxation method. Feeling her pulse slow by a few beets, she decides to share the calm and grips Steve's wrists. She concentrates for a moment and can actually feel his pulse lower as hers does. She can hear Steve's own shaken exhale and looks up from their hand to find the his gaze is still fixed on their hands. "How did you do that?" he asks, not looking up yet. "Just now. What was it?"

Cassie blinks and shifts her hand so that her thumbs can move over his wrists, noting that the previously pounding rhythm is now a gentler beat. "Apollo," she explains as evenly as she can. "He's the god of music along with... everything else. Music is mostly about the rhythm of sound," She shrugs feebly because the explanation sounds weak even to her. "I guess it's called a heartbeat for a reason." As though she's looking at someone else, she notices that her hands have started shaking a little. "I didn't know that I could do that."

Steve's hands move, steadying her own. "Does that happen often?" he asks. "New abilities?"

"Not since I was about seventeen," she admits. "That was when everything was most weird for me. Puberty was a really major suck fest. I grew six inches in two years and kept tripping over stuff. And kept accidentally setting things on fire."

That gets Steve to crack a smile and he leans forwards and lifts her hands, kissing where her pulse throbs at the base of her wrists. "You still haven't said what you want," he says quietly. "With Stark," he clarifies. "I can go find him now and get the movers back in. Or-" he stops and Cassie's newly calmed heart skips a beat. She raises an eyebrow at him in a silent prompt for him to keep going. "Or we can figure it out tomorrow," Steve finishes. "We can go find some food and sleep on things. And maybe you could," he stops and swallows. "Stay?"

Cassie untangles one of her hands and brushes it through his hair. "Are you asking me to move in with you?" She asks it straight out because she needs to be sure. This moment and this question are important and there doesn't seem to be room for grey areas or misinterpretation.

Steve begins to open his mouth but Cassie stops him by holding up a hand. "Because that's what it wounds like and if you are then I need you to be really sure you want me to live here because I am an honestly terrible roommate. I am _loaded_ with emotional baggage and family problems and I keep insane hours. And clearly I talk a lot when I'm trying not to freak out and for the two of us to have done this when you first could have been doing this we would have had to have been _married_ already! Because I know we don't really bring it up much which is fine but you did become an adult in the forties-"

She doesn't know what she would have said next but it ends up not mattering because Steve's mouth is covering hers and his free hand is on her knee and he's standing to shift the height differential so Cassie ends up tipping her head back to continue their kiss. His other hand works free of hers and tangles in the hair near the base of her neck, his thumb moving softly over the edge of her jaw.

When he pulls away he does it slowly and leaves his forehead pressed against hers. "I have never been happier to not be in the God damned forties," he says fervently, his breath hot against her skin. "In the forties I'd never have met you. You wouldn't have looked at me twice or we'd both be dead and I couldn't have done this," he punctuates the words with another kiss and it's at the same time lighter and more feverish than the last.

This time when he backs away they're both breathing hard and Cassie has no idea what to say or how to sort out the million thoughts that are running through her head. "Being frozen," Steve murmurs. "Alien invasions, Hydra, SHIELD... meeting you was worth all of that. So, whatever we do next is up to you. If you want your own apartment I'll go talk to Stark now. If you want to put off dealing with any of this until tomorrow then we wait until to tomorrow. If you want to stay here with me then I will be privileged enough to find out if you talk in your sleep, and we can burn everything while we try to figure out how to cook in that absurdly large kitchen together." The next kiss he gives her is on her forehead and Cassie stands up on to her knees to wrap her arms around his neck and lean in to his chest.

She buries her head in to his shoulder and the scent of his now recognizable aftershave fills her noise when she breaths in. Her mind races and she thinks of Annabeth and Percy together in their apartment and Hazel and Frank in the specially converted barracks they have at camp. She thinks of Selena and Beckendorf and her brother Michael and all of the kids she's known who died before they turned twenty.

And Cassie makes a choice.

"I guess all of my stuff is here already," she mutters in to Steve's shoulder. "It would be a lot of work to move all of it out now."

Cassie doesn't even have to lift her head to know that Steve is smiling. A tension she hadn't realized he was holding seems to relax and the ridges of muscle in his chest soften just slightly. "Thank you," he murmurs, and it's so quiet Cassie wonders if she actually heard it or not.

"What for?" Cassie murmurs. "My unbelievable boyfriend just asked me to move in with him in to an apartment that probably costs more than my entire experience in medical school."

Steve pulls back far enough to look at her. "Thank you, because an amazing girl just agreed to move in with a kid from Brooklyn," he says. He's looking at her with an expression that Cassie can only label as adoration and it's never a look that's been leveled at her before. She's dated guys who have looked at her with affection, or care, or any of a million other positive emotions, but Steve is looking at her like she's hung the moon and if her aunt hadn't almost literally done just that, it would seem so unbelievably big that it would be terrifying.

Well...

Okay.

It is, still, a little terrifying.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think. I know this chapter was a little bit slower than others, but I wanted it to be a bit more relationship development than plot work. Next chapter will be Cassie settling in to the Tower and meeting the rest of the team. I knew eventually I wanted Steve and Cassie to end up living together and this just seemed like a good way to do it. Have I gone insane? I can always edit, besides this is my Fanfic. Writing Cassie freaking out was kind of fun because she's so calm about everything else. I thought a good freakout over something that's basically normal might be humanizing. And warranted. Anyway, hit the button and tell me what you thought. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: The nothing I own is surpassed only by the nothing that I do not own. This is, by the way, my overly wordy and complex method of stating that I own absolutely none of the characters and recognizable plot points in this story. Everything you recognize from somewhere else belongs to the lovely folks at Marvel, Hyperion, and Rick Riordan. Basically, don't sue me. I promise it wouldn't be worth the time, effort, or legal fees.**

 **Quick Note/Warning: The end of this chapter heads in to the world of things further not Cannon. Also lots of make-outage which implies but does not describe anything someone who has watched the movies would be uncomfortable with reading. Anyway, you've been warned.**

It takes Cassie about a week to get comfortable in her new home. Most of that time is devoted to trying to figure out where everything is. Avengers Tower is just a really big place and Stark has a lot of stuff none of which seems to be very well organized. The floors used by the normal Stark employees are set up like any other office building on the planet thanks to Pepper, but apparently the woman decided to leave Stark to his own devices on the other floors.

Cassie has the utmost respect for that choice after having met Tony a few times. Picking battles is a crucial war strategy. Maybe she shouldn't be equating a romantic relationship to warfare, but Cassie has met both Aries and Aphrodite and happens to know for a fact that love and war simply aren't that far apart.

When she's not busy trying to figure out where things are, Cassie is mostly kept busy trying to organize the crates of SHIELD and Stark employee files that are currently covering the floor of her new office. In theory, she could farm out that kind of work to an assistant. In reality, she doesn't really want to hire an assistant before her office is organized. She wants to set up her space completely before she invites someone else in to it.

Besides, the people whose lives are summarized in those files are her patients now. They are her responsibility and Cassie takes that seriously. It will take her time to figure out the most comfortable way for her to delegate it. Trusting people isn't something she does naturally.

Cassie officially meets Dr. Bruce Banner on her sixth day after moving in. She's sitting on the floor with a pile of personnel files spread out around her and a large stack of multi-colored sticky tabs she's using to color coordinate the employees by the department they work in. It's been hours since she started her work and Cassie's suffered more paper cuts than she ever thought it was possible to receive.

The work is tedious but not particularly taxing so Cassie has managed to fall in to rhythm that is just his side of mind numbing. A soft knock at the door jolts her out of her headspace and Cassie climbs to her feet and goes to open the door. Stark didn't bother with organizing a company dress code for his employees, especially not those working on the Avengers floor so Cassie's not wearing shoes and the tile floor is cold beneath her feet.

She pulls the door open to find Dr. Banner on the other side and it takes her a moment to be sure that it's him. The only other time she had met this man he had been battered and exhausted in that little diner after the battle of Manhattan. Now, the man is well dressed in a blue dress shirt and slacks under a clean white lab coat. His hair is salt and pepper in color and his eyes are kind behind his glasses. Cassie is suddenly reminded of Percy's step-father Paul Blowfiss.

"Hello," she greats with a smile she hopes will put the other man at ease. Cassie extends her hand to him. "I'm Cassie."

Banner takes her hand almost hesitantly and shakes it with less pressure than she might have expected from most adults. "Bruce Banner," he says before dropping her hand and returning his own to his pockets. He doesn't really meet her eyes and Cassie tilts her head a little. Suddenly it isn't Paul who Dr. Banner reminds her of, it's Tyson. Banner is worried about using too much pressure so instead he uses almost too little to count.

"I thought I'd introduce myself to the new team doctor," Banner says.

Cassie shifts herself a little so that they're facing each other more directly while still maintaining the personal space bubble the man seems intent on setting. "I hope I'm not usurping you," she says with a slightly teasing lilt to her voice. Cassie also makes sure that he can see in her face that all she's doing is ribbing gently.

In her own way, Cassie is also running a bit of a test. If she's going to help the Avengers team, she needs to determine the best way to interact with each of them. Sometimes the only way to learn is through trial and error. However, Cassie is also smart and hasn't survived for this long without developing a sense or potential danger. If she's experimenting, she is going to be damn certain she does it carefully.

Her approach seems to be effective as Banner manages a facial twitch that could almost be construed as a smile. "I'm not that kind of doctor," he tells her. Cassie chooses to see this moment as an opening and it's one she jumps on without hesitation. She manages to ask a few semi-intelligent questions about his work and Banner seems to appreciate the effort even though they're both aware that she's out of her wheelhouse by the forth word out of his mouth.

He leaves about twenty minutes after he arrives with a more open smile and a slightly firmer handshake than the first. Cassie considers it a good first meeting and goes back to her filing. Building the foundations of a good relationships with the only other person around with medical knowledge on a team of superheroes is enough to make the day a good one and this one isn't even half over yet.

The day continues to be good when Steve takes her to Coney Island later. He wears sunglasses and a baseball cap and Cassie brings along a hoodie and pair of Ray Bans. They leave the building through a discrete exit away from the public eye and take the ferry. It's a nice day out and they lean against the railing watching the water below as they enjoy the sun. The wind whips Cassie's hair around her face and she sees a pattern of bluish green scales flash beneath the water. It reminds her of a story Percy once told her about a mini-quest with Clarisse when they were attacked by a sea serpent.

She hopes fervently that that won't happen today. Steve takes one of her hands and Cassie crosses the fingers of her other one. Luck has never been particularly on her side, but maybe today Fortuna will do her a solid. They make it to Coney Island without incident, tourist or monstrous, and Cassie sends up a mental thank you and makes a note to thank the goddess with a proper sacrifice the next time she can procure a ceremonial flame for the purpose.

Both Steve and Cassie are too desensitized with danger to get a real adrenaline surge from an amusement park ride, but it's indescribably nice to be able to simply wander through a crowd without worrying about being attacked at any moment. They buy funnel cake which makes Steve happy in such a brightly innocent way that Cassie almost wishes she could take a picture. Cassie herself has fun bouncing through the different target shooting games and comes away with a wide assortment of plush toys and teddy bears which she randomly dispenses to delighted small children as they pass.

The morning after, Cassie wakes up slowly and doesn't open her eyes for several moments after she regains consciousness. She feels warm and safe and it's a feeling she still can't get used to. After a lifetime of fear and never letting her guard down even in sleep, it will take longer than a week of comfort to get used to the sensation.

Steve has one arm stretched out underneath her and Cassie is using that shoulder as a pillow. His other arm is curled over her ribcage and their legs are similarly enmeshed. He generates heat like no one else she's ever met and the warmth coming from his chest where it's pressed against her back cocoons her almost better than the down coverlet. She tips her head to see the alarm clock on her night stand and when she sees that it's still early she lets her eyes fall shut and burrows back down in to the covers.

Hey, it's Saturday. She doesn't have to work and for once no one and nothing is trying to kill her. She will sleep in if she wants to.

Her movement seems to disturb Steve some because he shifts closer and murmurs something indistinguishable. He nuzzles his face in to the crook of her shoulder and Cassie feels his breath wash over the back of her neck in warm rhythmic waves in time with the expansion of his chest behind her. Cassie lets the natural rhythms of his body sooth her and begins to feel lulled back towards sleep when Steve shifts again behind her and manages to articulate a half formed morning greeting.

It takes some effort, but Cassie manages to form a response that can probably be understood. Steve's a smart guy. She's sure he gets the message.

Even if he doesn't, it doesn't seem to matter because he simply mumbles in response and Cassie feels a light pressure on the hair at the crown of her head which she knows means Steve has pressed a kiss there. Her assumption is confirmed when the pressure moves to the nape of her neck, and this time it's accompanied by the light, warm, brush of his lips against her skin. A happy sound escapes her lips and Cassie tips her head to give him a better angle.

Steve seems to take the movement as an invitation and Cassie has just about decided that this morning is shaping up to be fantastic when their safe and happy bubble is firmly and definitively popped. A voice, a voice Cassie recognizes all to well says "Well, this is simply adorable." The effect is like being suddenly dumped in an extra large bucket of ice water.

Cassie jerks immediately in to full awareness and is upright and out of bed before she can stop to think. It's possible that she should have taken those extra few seconds because one of the things she forgets in the process of her shock is the fact that she's still in her pajamas which currently consist of her underwear and a U.S military tee shirt she liberated from the back of Steve's dresser. If there is one thing more awkward than being woken up by your godly father, it was being jolted out of bed half naked with your boyfriend by your godly father.

Because that's who's in the room. That's the man who spoke. Her father Apollo, the god of the sun, medicine, archery, poetry, music, and prophecy.

And Cassie had been having such a nice morning too.

Steve jumps so badly he nearly puts a whole in the wall and probably would have if Stark hadn't used reinforced building materials when he constructed the team apartments. He's swearing badly enough that it would probably offend a large percentage of the American population to hear. The first words out of Cassie's mouth aren't in English. In fact, they're in ancient Greek and are non too polite. If her father were Zeus instead of Apollo, it's possible her word choices would have been enough to get her smited.

Apollo just stands there beaming sunnily at them as Steve prioritizes and starts searching for clothes. Cassie breathes deeply and tries to work her way back around to English. She takes a deep breath. "Pateras," she acknowledges. She goes with the Greek because she figures a little bit of traditional formality can't hurt at this point. On the other hand, an argument can be made that the time for formality passed when her father walked in on her potentially romantic morning with her boyfriend. "Welcome to my new home. I hope that you have not been waiting long."

It is quite possible that she has never spoken truer words, but Cassie would probably have to consult some kind of a record to check.

Her father spreads his hands magnanimously. "Not at all Liakada."

Cassie winces a little at the pet name but tries to shake it off quickly. Her father never just appears unless something major is going on. When nothing is going wrong, she's gone actual years with absolutely no contact. "May I ask why you are here?" she asks, trying to sound as polite as she possibly can. Steve is finally done cursing and seems to have dropped in to stunned silence. He passes Cassie a sweatshirt and she skims in to it gratefully and waits for her father to answer her question.

"Can't a father simply visit his daughter when she moves in practically next door to me?" Apollo asks. His tone is cheerful but their is something in his eyes that Cassie doesn't like. They seem deeper and darker than the last time Cassie had seen him. She's never really been able to read him before, but right now it's impossible. Whatever he's worried about, it can't be anything small.

Basically, there's a high probability that Cassie's life could be about to go absolutely ass backwards.

For now Cassie pulls together her patience and decides to play the game at her father's pace for the time being. "You never have before," she says as neutrally as she can. "The last time I saw you, you were attempting to make amends with Zeus to regain godly status. Of course," she ads on. "I am absolutely delighted to see you returned to your rightful place of power."

It's fairly smooth speaking as far as Cassie's concerned. She doesn't have the same gift with oratory as some of Apollo's other children and descendants, but she can pull it off pretty well if she has to. Steve is giving her a questioning side eye but if her father smells a rat he doesn't say so. He's never been a god for protesting flattery, false or otherwise, anyway.

Apollo brushes away her words. "Nonsense! I've checked in on you all the time. I'm sure I have. Anyway, I heard you had moved back in to glorious Manhattan after your graduation and felt I simply had to come by and view your new dwelling. Did you know that this building was created in my honor?" he asks with typical self-absorption. "Seventy-seven floors! It's perfect!"

"I'm sure Tony Stark will be thrilled to hear that you approve," Cassie says, and this time she can't quite contain her rolling eyes. Inwardly she shudders over the idea of Tony Stark and her father in the same room together. Although it's possible that she would have to ask Annabeth to design a room big enough to fit both of their egos first. Keeping the two of them apart at all costs becomes her next important mental note. Judging from the look of daunted dread on Steve's face, he might be willing to help her out with this new life sub-goal.

Apollo grins at her with an amount of enthusiasm that just borders on maniacal. "Now there's one clever mortal. We all asked Athena if he was one of hers but apparently he is one hundred percent human being."

"Debatable," Steve mutters from behind her.

Cassie decides at that moment that it's time to start cutting to the chase. If she can get her father to leave quickly it's possible that this day can be salvaged. "Lord Apollo," she says. "The last time that you payed a visit to me at home it was to warn me that a war was imminent. Is that why you are here now?"

Apollo's smile doesn't disappear but it does freeze across his face. "I watch the future," he says. Cassie doesn't say anything. She has the feeling he's working up to something and she knows from experience that when he's building something up dramatically it's probably best to just let him get there on his own time. "And I have discussed things with the fates. So I have come to warn you." Cassie waits, the buildup is about to resolve itself. "A new age is coming," he says. "An age of steel and an age of miracles."

With that he does something rare and takes off his sunglasses, revealing the August skye colored eyes that mach Cassie's, marking her as his daughter along with her golden blonde hair. He steps closer to her and lays his hands on her shoulders. Suddenly Cassie is suffused with a golden warmth that she knows comes from healing and feels practically abuzz with power. It's as though she's just absorbed five shots of espresso at once.

Her father leans over and kisses her forehead, leaving a fresh suffusion of warm power behind him. "Goodbye i kori mou. I would be very upset if you died." Then with a flash of sunlight bright enough to give her a new tan, her father is gone.

Cassie blinks after him for several moments, partially in surprise, and partly because she's waiting for the red spots dancing behind her eyelids to go away. "Huh," she says. She looks over at Steve who's staring at her with wide eyes and a frown pinching his forehead. "That was kind of weird."

Steve opens and closes his mouth a few times before he manages to articulate what he wants to say. "What the hell was that exactly?"

"That," Cassie says slowly. "Was my father." She gives him the best smile she can pull off. "Congratulations. You just survived meeting the parents. In some relationships, this moment would be a really major landmark."

"Your father the god," he says as though he's double checking. Cassie nods even though it isn't really a question. "He looked like he was thirty at the most," Steve continues, still sounding half shocked. "And he's the immortal god of the sun."

Cassie just shrugs. "Just feel glad that he didn't show up as a twenty year old," she tells him. "When I see him he tries to look older than me up to a certain point. That'll probably be stopping in the next five years or so though." Steve is still frowning so she sinks down on to the edge of the bed and folds her legs up underneath her. "The gods are thousands of years old Steve," she says gently. "They're hardly going to chose to look like it. Thor flies around without looking a day older than thirty and he's at least a thousand years older than my dad."

Steve gives a small involuntary shudder as if he's trying to slough off the information he's having trouble conceptualizing. "What was he calling you?" he asks instead. "When he was talking to you in Greek."

"Which time?" Cassie asks, allowing the change in subject because she doesn't particularly like it to begin with. "That last time, all he said was 'my daughter'. The thing before that was just a pet name. It means sunshine."

He frowns. "I don't get it," he says. "So he just pops in to your life early in the morning, double talks for a while, gives you vague warning and then vanishes? And he's your father?"

Cassie lets out an actual laugh at his indignance on her behalf. "You oughta see him on an off day. This time he nearly hugged me, topped off my energy, didn't ask me for any favors, and said he'd be sad if I died. From a godly olympian parent, that's practically a declaration of paternal love."

Steve seams to arrive at some kind of conclusion because he sits down next to her and boosts her up and over in to his lap as easily as a normal person might lift a backpack or a small child. She doesn't protest the motion, though it surprises her enough that she lets out a small squeaky sound before she twists and settles herself in to his hold. She loops her arms around his neck and looks up at him but Steve is looking at the wall across from him and doesn't meet her eyes. Cassie settles in to the extended hug. She has the feeling that Steve isn't sure what to say, so he's holding her like this as some sort of gesture of comfort.

"I'm more worried about why he showed up here in the first place," Cassie says, thinking out loud. "That warning he gave... that worries me. Like I said before, the only other time he's delivered a warning to me in person we were about to start fighting a war with the Titans that could have potentially resulted in leveling the entire world as we know it. That he did it again now is... not good."

Her concerned tone seems to get Steve to snap out of whatever thoughts he's combing through inside his head. "Do you have any idea what he meant?" he asks. "When he was talking about the age of Steel and the Age of Miracles? Are they part of your mythology somehow?"

Cassie shakes her head. "Not that I've ever heard of. The Greeks tended to number their ages. When the Titans ruled the Earth they called it the golden age. It was a major misnomer, but they went with it anyway. Now I think we're in the fifth age but I've never really kept track of that kind of thing. I have people I could ask who would know. I've never heard of any time span called the Age of Steel, or the Age of Miracles." She shifts her shoulders to get more comfortable against the firmness that is Steve's chest. "I guess I could call around."

It's the closest she's ever gotten to straight out telling Steve that there are other people out there like her, that their are other demigods populating the world he lives in and making life more complicated for some people. Steve blinks down at her and seems to be deciding how far he wants to push it. "Who," he starts and then stops, biting off the back end of the question. "Who would you call?"

Cassie bights her lower lip and twists her fingers in to the cotton collar of the tee shirt Steve had managed to procure right after Apollo had woken them up. "Probably my friend Annabeth," she says quietly. "She's normally the person who would know about these kinds of things. Possibly my friend Rachel. She lives here in New York and she understands prophecy. Maybe my teacher Chiron," she looks up and meets his eyes. "Or my brother."

Steve inhales deeply and seems to hold at the top of the breath for a moment before letting it out. "You have a brother." His tone is calm and steady and very carefully without much inflection. It's hard to tell weather he's asking a question or making a statement when he talks this way.

"Two of them," Steve says carefully, dropping her head and addressing his shirt again. "Will and Austin. Both younger than me. And one younger sister. Her name's Kayla. She's actually on the archery team for the Olympics." She fumbles her phone from the bedside table and pulls a photo up on to the screen.

It's a picture showing the Apollo cabin from before the summer she'd spent trekking through the Labyrinth with Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Tyson, and Grover. In the picture, the cabin had just started to glow golden in the growing evening and Cassie and her siblings are standing out on the front steps. Cassie's standing on a top step between Michael and Lee with an elbow on each of their shoulders. Those two boys are on the step below Cassie, and on the step below them Will is sprawled out taking up too much space with Austin on one side and Kayla on the other. They all look happy, alive, and smiling brightly. Cassie knows on reflection that this photo is the last time they ever looked like that. The next photo of the Apollo cabin won't have Lee in it, and Michael will be missing and presumed dead, his body unrecoverable.

"That's Will," Cassie says, pointing him out. "He's in medical school out in California. He's the next oldest after me. And there's Austin," she points. "He's a real sweetheart. Loves jazz. He just started college. And then there's Kayla," her thumb moves to the corner of her sister's face.

She looks up at Steve who is looking at the picture intently. "The other two?"

He leaves the question hanging but Cassie fills in the blanks as succinctly as she can. "Dead," She states. "We fought a war a while ago. The first real battle happened the year I turned fifteen. We were prepared as much as we could be, and the battle didn't last longer than a day, but at the end of it Lee was dead. He was sixteen." Cassie swallows hard

and pushes her hair back over her shoulder. "The end of the war took Michael," she says, forcing herself to continue. "He helped blow up a bridge to keep the enemy from crossing but we never found him again."

Steve hands her back her phone and tightens his arm around her in silent comfort and solidarity. He then very tactfully alters the subject. "Some of you look alike," he says. "Some of you don't. Is that... normal for demigods?"

Cassie nods, thankful for the subject change. "Yeah. You don't get a lot of familial resemblance when you're dealing with gods. They can look however they want so 'looking like your parents' gets kind of subjective. Every now and then you see something. A whole group with the same grey eyes or brown hair. Like you saw in the picture most of my father's children are blonde with blue eyes. But you see more commonalities with how we act." She takes a breath and wonders how careful to be with what she says next. "And with out abilities. Temperament and power, those two things are highly dependent on godly parent."

She stops talking then because she doesn't know what else to say. So much has been said already that she thinks it's possible one or both of their heads will explode if she says any more. Now though, for better or worse Steve knows more about the truth of her life. Suddenly she's led to wonder if that might have been a part of Apollo's reasoning for showing up so early. She shakes that thought away quickly, desperately hoping that her father the Greek God isn't beginning to meddle in her love life.

Steve leans back a little ways so that Cassie has room to turn and face him for what he says next. "SHIELD doesn't know," he states. It's not a question really but Cassie shakes her head in answer anyway. Steve blinks once as he absorbs that information and nods as he assimilates it in to whatever thoughts are running through her head. "And you want to keep it that way?"

This time it is a question but Cassie gives herself a moment to think through her answer. Steve hates to lie and Cassie has never wanted him to do it on her behalf, but if SHIELD finds out who she is and what she can do they will have questions Cassie doesn't want to answer. Never mind the fact that they will likely start using her for combat missions and her already probably short life span will shrink even further.

"Yes," she says finally, her voice starts small but grows involute as she speaks. "Yes I would like SHIELD, whatever is left of it not to know. The government is okay with Thor showing up because as far as they can tell all he does is hang out with Jane and defend the world. If they found out that Greek gods frequently pop in to their world and hook up with mortals, and to top it off those hook ups can result in _kids,_ I don't want to think about what would happen. So many of those kids really are just kids, some of them as young as four years old. I can't and won't trust any government with their lives."

The words or the conviction she puts behind them seem to hit home with Steve. It probably also helps that the last government agency Steve worked for ended up being corrupted by nazis. Steve leans forward and kisses first her forehead, and then her lips. "Okay," he says. "It's your call."

That works out pretty for a time and for the next month or so things are about as calm as they probably ever will be.

Steve's days are mostly spent doing paperwork to handle the residual SHIELD fallout and new Avengers Initiative. He also drops in on Sam's therapy group once or twice, and Cassie doesn't pry but she thinks that that's probably a good thing. She will always listen and talk with Steve if he wants her to, but nothing can change the fact that she just isn't trained in psychology at a high enough level to give him the help he probably needs after seventy years of built up PTSD. Steve does a good job of handling things, but Cassie knows he has nightmares he doesn't like talking about and he flinches when he feels cold.

Cassie spends her time doing routine medical exams and getting her files in order and a system established. When some of the support staff for the Initiative complain about having to redo their yearly physical exam, Cassie likes to remind them that the last person to give them their exams is a) a nazi and b) dead. It shuts them up pretty damn quickly and Cassie gets her work done without incident. Of course, the higher up the totem poll she goes, the more complicated scheduling becomes. Cassie learns to make herself proficient in the twenty minute average exam.

Dr. Banner comes to her of his own volition and equipped with a file containing his entire medical history including the results of several tests he's done on his own blood and DNA since his exposure to the gamma radiation that created the Hulk. She incorporates the information in to her files carefully and proceeds with her exam. Banner makes small talk and Cassie concludes that, aside from some likely age related joint damage, he's healthy. He leaves with a wave and a smile and Cassie spends the next two hours reading the file he gave her.

Natasha and Barton present themselves to her on their own time though they do show up together. They are suddenly just there when she goes in in the morning which is somewhat impressive considering her door to her office is still locked when she arrives and she's the only one who knows the code or has the correct palm print necessary to enter. She supposes it's possible that they repelled from the roof and came in through the window. It's also conceivable they came in through the vents.

If that's the case Cassie would like to know what kind of lint remover they're using because their clothing appears to be immaculate. Natasha's hair doesn't even look messed up. That fact alone makes the entire endeavor one that Cassie will never be able to accomplish.

As has long been her habit, Cassie decides to roll with the situation at hand and passes out matching clipboards of medical forms to be filled out. Barton sighs as he adjusts the clipboard position to suite a lefty but makes no other comment. Cassie is beginning to believe that that one sigh may be Barton's equivalent of a drawn out complaint. She may have to learn to speak a new dialogue dealing with him. Romanov raises a rye eyebrow and turns to the form, filling it in with tiny, precise letters. "Mine always go so quickly," she says as she hands the clipboard back to Cassie. "Writing the word 'unknown' just doesn't take very long."

"I get that," Cassie returns with a matching expression. "The whole side that's supposed to be about my Dad is just one big list of 'I don't know'. Eventually i just started leaving that half blank. Makes it fun when I'm asked about inheritable issues." She gives Natasha's paperwork a cursory scan and then begins her exam while Barton finishes his paperwork. He follows them in to the exam room and Cassie thinks about asking him to leave as per normal protocol, but Natasha seems to expect his presence so Cassie let's it go. It's not like this is a normal patient in an average hospital. Being sued over breach of privacy probably won't be an issue.

The exam goes fairly typically and she and Natasha talk about the city. Mostly, they talk about food and the best ethnic restaurants. Natasha also suggests they arrange a time to go out for coffee and a chat which seems like it might be out of character but Cassie is prepared to admit that she doesn't actually know much about the other woman apart from what she's gleaned from their few interactions and what she's heard from Steve. She agrees and Natasha grins at her, showing a few too many teeth for Cassie's comfort and she gets the sudden feeling that it's possible she may have agreed to a potentially dangerous undertaking.

Barton hands in a slightly more complete set of paperwork and his exam is considerably quieter. It's also over much more quickly because Cassie makes the executive decision that giving a man with the code name Hawkeye a vision test is patently ridiculous. The man's pupils are also hyper reactive to light in a way Cassie recognizes as similar to the functions her own eyes perform and surmises that his vision is likely as unimpaired by darkness as it is by distance.

Arranging any kind of appointment with Pepper or Tony proves to be absolutely impossible. Pepper splits up her day in five minute increments and Cassie is beginning to think that the only way that woman will ever make time for a yearly check up is if someone actually manages to invent a real life remote control and lets Pepper borrow it to take advantage of the pause button. Tony simply refuses to make appointments on principle and prefers to simply drop in on people unexpectedly. She thinks that some day he'll probably just drop in on a random Tuesday when she has a million other things to do and expect her to drop everything to meet with him.

Underneath everything though, between paperwork, physicals, board meetings, and black ops, something else has started too. What's started is a search. Steve has quietly begun to look for Bucky Barnes.

He bounces ideas off of her sometimes but hasn't outright asked for her help in the search just yet. Cassie takes to reading the information he gets on the subject of Barnes over Steve's shoulder and when it makes her head swim too badly she retires to the couch in their living room with a cup of tea or hot chocolate. Then, ten or fifteen minutes later Steve will bring whatever he's working on over to the sofa from his desk and lays out with his head in her lap, reading sections of different files out loud to her. They trade roles for an evening when they get to a section of files written in Greek. Apparently, the Winter Soldier did some work there during the seventies.

Cassie helps Steve create a timeline of Barnes' movements over the years from the pieces they can string together. There are some stretches where things are incredibly well documented and those periods coincide pretty well with times of major world wide political upheaval. However, these stretches are pretty short in the grand scheme of things and the blank periods make Cassie nervous in a way she can't quite put a label on. She can tell that they worry Steve too, but neither of them put those particular thoughts in to words. It's like they're both clinging to the idea that if the words aren't said, they won't be real.

The other thing Cassie does is start compiling a mental list of all the people who might be in the mood to do her a favor if the search for Barnes requires it. Most of her friends will help her without a seconds hesitation she knows, and there are yet other people whom she thinks she can probably influence around to her way of thinking. You know, if she asks really nicely and smiles real pretty.

Because blackmail is illegal.

Oh and wrong. Very very wrong. No blackmailing being done here.

If things get really desperate, Cassie figures she can call Rachel as a last ditch effort. It's not that Rachel isn't helpful, or her friend, and actually one of her favorite fringe benefits of living in New York is that she and Rachel have managed to meet for coffee twice since she moved. No, the problem is that asking Rachel to find someone or predict the future isn't actually asking Rachel. It's asking the Oracle of Delphi, and that particular spiritual being is not one that Cassie has never been anxious to cross paths with, weather or not the oracle was created by her father. In her experience, seeking out prophecy or answers from that source is basically equal to purposefully diving head first in to a deep pit of trouble.

That pit starts looking considerably deeper when Steve unearths a file on a mission that the Winter Soldier took on dated December sixteenth 1991. Cassie recognizes the date as they day Tony Stark's parents died. There are too few true coincidences in the universe for either Cassie or Steve to believe that the matching dates is one of them. For her part, Cassie has met the fates personally, and happens to know for a fact that the three crones are for more likely to be vindictive than they are to be lazy.

Steve reads the entire file at hyper speed and Cassie would be impressed at the speed with which he absorbs information if she weren't busy focusing on the way whatever he's reading is making Steve's hands shake and his face go white. When he's done Steve hands the file to her saying only, "read it," before getting up and pouring himself a drink at the kitchen counter.

This behavior is genuinely frightening to Cassie. Steve can't get drunk to begin with given his increased metabolism and has told her before that he normally only drinks socially or for taste. The fact that he's drinking now combined with his words and shaking hands tells Cassie that whatever is in this file, it's bad. _Really_ bad. Like, the world might be about to shift on its axis and fall over the edge of a cliff in the universe, _bad_.

Cassie forces herself to read and understand each and every word before she turns back to Steve. He's staring in to the amber contents of his glass with angry, furious, darkness mixing with an untamable portion of grief in his eyes. Cassie doesn't know how many times his glass has been filled and subsequently emptied while she had read, she supposes that technically it doesn't really matter, but the idea and general symbolism of the gesture doesn't lose it's value because Steve can't get drunk.

She plants herself squarely in Steve's field of vision because it seems like the best way to make sure he's actually seeing her and not whatever might be playing inside his head. Very carefully, Cassie take his hand, offering him a more substantial to the here and now. After a drawn out moment of silence as both of their heads spin with the information they've just absorbed, Cassie speaks. "Are you going to tell Tony?"

"I don't know," Steve says on a strained exhale. "God I just don't know." He stares up at her and for a moment Cassie feels like she could drown in the deep blue-blackness there. "How do I tell him?" he asks, his throat rasping. "How do I tell my friend that the man I've spent months trying to find- the man I told everyone deserves to be given a fair chance, killed his parents? I don't know-" he swallows hard. "I don't know how to do that Cassie."

He's staring up at her because he's sitting and she isn't and the look on his face is just so sad and so lost that Cassie thinks she might actually be feeling a piece of her heart break. She wants to hit something, or shoots something, or use her abilities to heal. But there isn't any magic for something like this and Cassie suddenly feels horribly and impossibly helpless.

The only thing she can think of to do is to step forward so that she's standing between Steve's knees where he sits at the breakfast bar and tugs his head down gently so that his face is buried in her shoulder. He fights her for a moment, but he doesn't try very hard or for very long before he gives in lets his head drop as Cassie works her fingers through his hair and over the back of his neck and shoulders. Bit by bit, more and more of his weight drops forward in to her and she spreads her feet slightly to compensate the added pressure.

The helpless feeling doesn't go away, and Cassie isn't sure that she's doing the right thing until Steve's arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer so that her body is pressed flat against his. Cassie simply moves with the tug and continues to move her fingers over his back in what she hopes are calming patterns. She counts his breaths, then her own, and eventually Steve exhales more deeply than he has before which Cassie only feels as a stream of hot air blowing over her skin. His shoulders relax and Cassie can no longer keep the question screaming at the front of her mind inside. "How can I help you?" she asks desperately. "What do you need me to do?"

Steve shakes his head, still pressing against her and the movement causes his hair to brush softly against the underside of her jaw and cheek, tickling like a feather. "Nothing," he says, voice thick. "You're doing it." He shifts locking his arms more stiffly around her to pull her up in to his lap and turning so that she's pressed between him and the counter. His hands move to grip the edges of the counter on either side of her and his head tips forward but isn't in the crook of her neck anymore.

He's taking his breaths in measure and Cassie realizes that he's trying to shut down what he's feeling, trying to lock it away so that he can think. Steve is trying to switch himself off so that the Captain can take over and just this once, Cassie is determined not to let him. She runs her fingers through his hair and down his neck and shoulders, applying firm and steady pressure to the muscles Steve is trying to tense as part of the physical switch. She forces the muscles to loosen and she can actually feel Steve shudder as the tension he had called up collects and is forced to release.

"You are not The Captain right now," she tells him firmly, forcing him to look at her. "You're Steve, okay? Just him and you aren't alone because I'm here with you. And tonight we're just Steve, and just Cassie, and tomorrow we'll go back to being functioning people and we'll figure out what to do with... all of this," she gestures in the general direction of the coffee table where she's left the file. "But not now," she says, forging ahead. "Tonight, we get to feel like hell and be depressed and screwed up because you're a super soldier, I'm a demigod who's dad has no sense of personal space and keeps delivering cryptic warnings about end times, and your best friend is a cry frozen super human with a metal arm who was brainwashed and used as a weapon to kill people."

Steve grunts in something that sounds almost like disbelief and Cassie tightens his grip on her neck and waits for him to meet her eyes again. "And tonight we get to ignore it," she tells him firmly. Steve's eyes widen in shock and he opens his mouth to speak but Cassie rolls ahead. "Because we have to sometimes," she insists. "You can't always hold the world on your shoulders." She gives a small, sad smile as a memory presents itself at the front of her mind. "You know, the story of Atlas?" she asks.

"Only that he was a titan who got trapped holding the sky," Steve says, clearly wondering exactly where this conversation is going.

Cassie nods. "Right, but he hasn't held it forever. Hercules took it from him once, and other people have held it since. Sometimes those stories are found, but what they always seem to leave out is that you can't actually force someone in to it. You can trick, manipulate, or threaten, but you can't force. No one, human, god or tighten can _make_ any other being take that burden unwillingly." She brushes her fingers over his cheeks. "Don't lift this right now," she whispers, almost imploring him. Her fingers move to cover his lips so that she can finish speaking. "I'm not saying to ignore it forever. In fact, I think that's the last thing you should do. I'm just saying, wait until tomorrow to carry it. Wait until it's a little bit lighter."

"So what do we do instead?" Steve asks. "What do we do tonight?"

Cassie bites her lower lip, giving a helpless shrug. "I don't know," she says. "Honestly, this whole concept isn't any more familiar to me than it is to you. I was kind of improving there. I have to admit it sounded better than I thought it might have."

Steve tips his head and nudges his forehead against hers. "Keep improving," he says, voice low. "Guess. If we're ignoring everything that makes us more than just who we are, what do Steve and Cassie do?"

"Whatever," Cassie says, her words coming out on a breath. Steve is so close that they are practically sharing breaths. "Whatever keeps us alive. Whatever we want."

His eyes darken to such a deep blue that even with Cassie's enhanced vision she can barely see the lines that divides his irises from his pupils. Those eyes dart from her eyes to her lips and his tongue darts out to moisten his own. His arms move closer together behind her back, effectively caging her in. "Whatever we want," he echoes. "For tonight."

"Until tomorrow," Cassie confirms. "Until it's not so late, and not so dark, and we can figure out what to do next. Just... she trails off, distracted by one of Steve's fingers as it winds a slow path over her ribs and to her shoulder, tracing the pattern of veins below her skin towards the inside of her wrist.

"Okay," he breaths, kissing the inside of her wrist, then her palm, and then the point where her pulse thrums in her veins.

Cassie tries to steady her breathing which has gone shaky with his actions. "Okay?" she asks. She thinks she know what Steve means but she's having trouble stringing her thoughts together coherently right now.

Steve nods. "Yes," he says. Then his lips are on hers and his mouth and hands suddenly seem to be everywhere all at once. His hands are in her hair and on her hips and spanning her ribcage and sliding under her tank top to get to bare skin. His mouth is against hers and tis tongue is in her mouth before it's tracing a burning line over and along the lines of her cheekbone and jaw, coming to a stop for a moment below her ear. "What we want," he whispers. Then his teeth give a light nip at the skin there and Cassie rapidly begins to form the foggy conclusion that they are both wearing too many clothes.

In the end they manage to leave the kitchen and make it to a bed. When they're both exhausted they sleep and Cassie wakes up to the first tinges of pinkish golden dawn light streaming in through the window. Her newly open eyes find Steve's already watching her and he pulls her to him without hesitation.

They sit together, with his arms wrapped around her and Cassie's head resting on his chest over the beating rhythm of his heart. They don't speak, they just watch. The new day is rising.

And thank all the gods this one looks lighter than the last.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I know this one took a while and I'm sorry for that. School has been seriously busy. Anyway, I felt like that was a good place to leave the chapter and the next one will be very non-cannon. I hoped you all liked the make-outage but like I've said it isn't something I write very often. If anyone has any pointers for that or anything else in this chapter let me know. I am completely open to any suggestions! Anyway, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: If I owned any of this my life would be a much higher level of amazing than it currently is. Unfortunately for everyone involved in this particular situation, my life is pretty decidedly average. Also I'm not rich. I'm pretty sure everyone who has any connection to actually owning Percy Jackson or the Avengers are very very rich. This is all a really long way of saying that I own nothing. I'm just borrowing with no intention what so ever of making any money. Don't sue me please. Seriously it would only be a waste of your own time. I have nothing worth being sued over.**

Steve's birthday is the forth of July because of course it is. He's Captain America. If the day of his birth wasn't the single most patriotic American day possible the whole universe would have rejected the very notion of such a thing.

Cassie isn't really sure what to do about it. She's never celebrated a birthday with a boyfriend before, or any other gift requiring holiday for that matter. All she has to work off of is the theory at play which in itself isn't all that complicated. On the anniversary of your significant other's birth you procure for them an item to which you can both apply a significant level of emotional value and present it to them in some kind of nice way. Possibly involving colorful paper and shiny ribbons.

The problem Cassie faces is that she isn't exactly sure what that object should be. It's hard to tell what kind of present to get for the guy who in some ways is turning twenty-nine and in some ways is turning ninety-six. It's not like he needs extra socks or an iTunes gift card.

Well, Cassie may have ADHD but unlike some demigods (looking directly at you Perseus Jackson) she is a big believer in occasionally sitting back and waiting for brilliance to strike. It's true she's working on a deadline, but she does have some time, and sometimes the universe acts before she can. It's her belief that if luck exists, it is largely due to people's belief in it.

Her brain wave occurs during the last weekend in June. She and Steve are actually enjoying a quiet day off, the kind Cassie never imagined she would ever live to have. This is the kind of weekend where Steve makes pancakes, she makes two cups of coffee the way they each like it, and the two of them bicker gently over the degree to which bacon should be cooked. Cassie believes the crunchier the better while Steve prefers the meat to be a little more floppy. It's the kind of morning where things are warm, and sunny, and calm.

Cassie frowns down at a crossword puzzle from the New York Times, trying to fit the numbers together. Math has always reminded her a bit of musical notes therefore it isn't as difficult for her as it could be. At least, it's no more difficult than reading or any of the work she does at her daily job. Steve sits on the couch next to her with her feet in his lap. His drawing pad is propped up against her legs and as Cassie finishes her puzzle and sets it aside she notes that he's sketching rather intently.

Moving careful so that she doesn't jostle him, Cassie sits up and shifts so that she can look over his shoulder at what he's drawing. It's a detailed view of the skyline out of their living room window and for something he's only been working on for an hour using a normal Number Two pencil it's an impressive piece. It includes a high level of detail and Cassie thinks that she's glad that this is something that Steve has always had, even before he took the super soldier serum.

"This is amazing," she tells him truthfully. She touches the corner of the paper with the tips of her fingers. She smiles at him and he returns the gesture.

"It's something I always try to make time for," Steve says. "I lost track of it for a while after getting out of the ice. Now I've been working on getting it back. Before D.C I was thinking about getting more supplies."

Cassie regards him with her head canted slightly to the side. "So why haven't you?" She's well aware that there are times for subtlety, this just doesn't seem like one of them. She's asking her boyfriend a question. Nothing about that needs to be any more complicated than the simplicity of every day life.

It's nice that Steve answers the question the same way. He gives a little shrug and adds a few more pencil marks to his paper which create a new range of details in one of the buildings Cassie can look out and see through the glass five feet away from her. "I guess I just haven't thought about it enough," he says. "I'll figure out a time to buy art supplies later when the world won't implode."

He goes back to his drawing and Cassie settles back on to the couch, a birthday plan brewing in her mind. Soon she knows what to get Steve, nice art supplies seem like the way to go. However, Cassie isn't exactly sure what constitutes "nice art supplies". She's decent with music, fine arts aren't something she really knows how to judge.

In theory, Cassie supposes she could just search the internet for an art supply store near by and buy whatever is most expensive. In practice, that strategy is potentially a waste of money given she doesn't know what she should buy. Besides, it seems a little bit too impersonal to just go with the most expensive option.

With all of that in mind, Cassie calls the one person she knows in Manhattan who knows anything about art supplies. A phone call after she decides what to do, Cassie has a day of lunch and shopping planned with none other than Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Of course, this help comes with a price, and that price is revealing that she has a boyfriend which is a topic she's been avoiding with any and all of her demigod friends. It's not that she doesn't want them involved in her life, but she's also completely aware of what will happen the minute they find out she's dating someone.

Before they figure out who it is she's dating several things will happen. Nico and Frank will both offer to spy using their various abilities. Frank might turn in to a literal fly on the wall and Nico could do anything from Shadow Travel in to personal moments to summoning a skeleton army for intimidation purposes. Piper and Annabeth will go in to hyper research mode while Hazel frowns in concern, and Percy and Jason will begin plotting some form of inclement weather based recrimination. Calypso will ask for details and Leo will probably make an inappropriate joke.

By the time Cassie explains that she's dating Steve Rogers, Captain America and an epic Avenger the situation will shift. The group will divide in to strategic and combat teams. The inappropriate joke counter will go through the roof. Hazel and Nico will probably start pulling up Steve Rogers news footage from when they were kids and Percy and Jason's inclement weather situation will probably turn in to some form of category four hurricane. All of that considered, she's been putting off this moment for a while.

Still, by the time she's meeting Rachel for their pre-arranged caffeine fix she's figured out that the best way to deliver the news is by employing the band aid method and just get through it quickly. It's all about timing, and Cassie employs whatever strategic skill she has to pick the right opening. When Rachel stops the verbal tirade she's using to fill Cassie in on what's been going on at Camp over the summer to take a drink Cassie picks her moment.

"So... I'm dating Captain America," she says as casually as she can. There it was. Bandaid gone. Of course, if she had her way Cassie would just say she's dating a guy named Steve Rogers and leave it at that, but that's not the world they live in. Going by the fact that Rachel doesn't _actually_ spit her coffee back out Cassie thinks maybe she hasn't done that badly the casual.

"You're dating who now?!" she sputters.

Cassie decides to move past the stutter and hope that the duration of the conversation will normalize the reaction some. Knowing what she knows about Rachel, it doesn't seem that far out of the realm of possibility. "Captain America," she repeats calmly. "Steve. We've been dating for a while now. We live together and it's his birthday on the fourth so I want to get him a present. Do you feel like helping?"

A furrow slices itself between Rachel's eyes as she frowns at her. "Oh my gods!" she says. "You're dating an Avenger. Like, an actual real life Avenger. And wait hold on you live with him?! When in the name of Tartarus did that happen?" Cassie doesn't try to speak before the verbal tirade is over. None of the question's Rachel's asked so far are actually ones Cassie's expecting to have to answer. A few run-on sentences later Rachel pauses to recalibrate. "Did you say that Captain America's birthday is the fourth of July?"

Cassie cracks a grin and nods. "Yeah."She can tell that Rachel's mental wheels are already spinning towards the same initial train of thought she had had. There really was something to be said for having the same friends for eight years. You all started thinking the same way.

Rachel's eyebrows shoot up toward her hairline. "Figures," she mutters. A million thoughts seem to be running through her head and Cassie decides to just wait until they finish processing. Annabeth thinks like lightning strikes, illuminating the surroundings and lighting the ground on fire if it's dry. On the other hand, Rachel thinks like a tornado wind storm. At the end of it everything settles back down more or less the way it used to be.

While she waits Cassie sips her coffee and picks at the blueberry muffin she ordered when they first went in to the coffee shop. "Well..." she says finally. "Okay I guess. You're happy?"

This time the question actually does demand an answer and Cassie gives it without hesitation. "Yes," she says. "Very. I think- I think we're good of each other."

Rachel seems to assess her words for a moment and then gives a decisive nod. "Okay then. So," she sits forwards. "You said something about getting him a birthday present? What do you need my help for? Wouldn't Annabeth or Piper be more helpful? It's not like I've dated anyone for a while. Oracle and all."

"Not for this kind of shopping," Cassie says with a shake of her head. "Steve likes art," she offers in explanation. "I thought I'd get him supplies for it, nice ones. I just don't know what actually constitutes nice art supplies. I didn't really want to just rely on the internet and I figured you'd know."

Rachel adjusts to that piece of information faster than she did to the first part. She nods and slugs back the rest of her coffee like a champ. "Right," she stands. "Let's go. We have a living national icon to find a birthday present for."

Armed thusly with Rachel's knowledge of art and art supplies and Cassie's knowledge of Steve and a full wallet they spend the next several hours going in and out of different high end artist supply stores. To Cassie it feels like they get to every one of the damn things in the five boroughs but in this Rachel is apparently inexhaustible. Her sore feet prove worth it though. When Rachel and she part ways at the subway platform closest to the Tower, Cassie is heavily ladened with sets of pastels and fine grade drawing charcoal and trying to work out if she needs to recruit help from Pepper or Bruce to get them in to the house without Steve noticing.

Eventually it turns out that she shouldn't have worried. A quick phone call on her walk to the Tower tells her that Steve's in an administrative meeting for the duration of the afternoon. This clears her way and she gets all of the presents wrapped and hidden before he gets back. In the end the whole trip costs her four paper cuts and an amount of money she'd rather not think about. The fact that she _has_ this kind of money to spend in the first place is still something she's struggling to get used to. Maybe in a couple years she'll get there.

Tony throws a party for Steve's birthday and of course they go. For a Stark thrown party, it's actually not that huge which Cassie is grateful for, but she knows that it's still bigger than Steve would choose personally. For her own part, huge drunken parties were never her cup of tea and probably wouldn't have been even if she had a better history with big crowds.

However, the chocolate cake commissioned for the event is absolutely amazing and the view of the city's fireworks display from the rooftop patio is breathtaking. To keep Steve occupied and not thinking about the crowds she tells him stories of the kinds of animated sparkler scenes Cabin Nine coordinates every year. At some point over the course of the evening, Cassie realizes that this is the first time she won't see those fireworks since she turned eight years old. Some of the other members of the Seven poke and prod and ask about why she isn't coming this year, but she puts them off with a version of the truth, that she's celebrating with her boyfriend or once, and Rachel has sworn to run interference for a little while.

What she doesn't think about until it's far too late for her to do anything about is the fact that Stark has invited everyone Steve has ever called a friend who is still alive today. Granted, that list is pretty short due to the fact that Steve effectually dropped out of time for seventy years. Earlier on in the party this is fine because the living people that Steve considers to actually be his friends are all in the know about the fact that they're dating. The problem is really that Stark has more friends than Steve and Pepper has political/corporate instincts and between those two things the guest list of important people in attendance who don't know that Steve has a girlfriend, much less that that girlfriend is her, is somewhat shockingly large.

Those people look at them a lot and talk to each other in quiet voices that they probably think Cassie and Steve can't hear. Steve doesn't address them, he just holds her hand loosely between them as they wander the party mingling with the people they're supposed to mingle with, sometimes breaking away from each other for a while before finding each other again. For her part, Cassie talks mostly to several former SHIELD doctors and Bruce.

When the talk becomes exhausting she politely excuses herself and pops up on her toes and tries to find someone who can provide some kind of reprieve. Steve is stuck in conversation with several serious bureaucratic types with what she knows is a false smile of politeness rather than actual joy at the conversation. Stark and Pepper as the two with the most social obligations are both thronged with crowds of important people vying for their attention so Cassie gives both of them a wide birth.

Eventually she spots Clint Barton perched on a railing, heedless of the sheer drop behind him. He meets her eye and must read something of her mounting discomfort in her face because he flicks his gaze deliberately towards a more secluded corner of the patio about ten feet from where he perches. Cassie takes the hint and makes her way in that direction. When she's a few steps away she catches sight of Natasha's bright red hair and sees the assassin reclining comfortably on a padded deck lounger beside an empty fire pit. A woman Cassie now recognizes as Maria Hill is similarly seated by her side.

Relieved at their apparent silence and the sight of the vodka bottle in Natasha's hand Cassie flops down on a third lounger and kicks off the heels she's been wearing all night so far to give her feet a break. "Hey," she greets, going no further than that.

"Done with the milling crowds?" Natasha asks archly.

Cassie is completely willing to put up with any potential prodding owing to the fact that the woman has produced a new class and has poured her a drink. Alcohol doesn't really do much more for Cassie than mortal drugs do as a general rule, but if it's good enough the burn can be pleasant. Besides, if her experience with Norse heroes has taught her anything it's that alcohol is a bonding experience. "Surveyed zoo animal isn't a good look on me," she says lightly.

Maria nods and hold up her glass, "Amen to that." Natasha inclines her head as well and all three of them drink. This vodka is definitely good. It warms her throat and stomach and barely tastes like anything at all. She sticks with small sips as the evening progresses. Natasha stays with her but Maria is pulled away eventually to deal with some former agents. Barton joins them later and perches on the back of Natasha's chair. Natasha hands him her own glass without further reaction and the two of them share seamlessly.

By eleven thirty most of the crowd has thinned out and by eleven forty-five the only people left are the core Avengers on the planet currently and Maria Hill. Bruce quietly sits, sipping at a glass of iced seltzer water and Cassie wonders if avoiding alcohol is about keeping the Hulk under control. Stark and Pepper arrive, Pepper's shoes are off of her feet and in Tony's arms and Pepper is trickily balancing several extra plates of cake.

Steve himself appears over her shoulder and bends over her to kiss her by way of greeting. Cassie embraces the kiss happily and puts her hands on the arms of the chair to push herself up and in to him. The angle is awkward and after a few moments her neck begins to hurt but Steve doesn't seem to be done kissing her yet and since it is his birthday Cassie decides to screw everything and take the neck cramp.

After a few incalculable moments Steve leans back up again. "Hi," he says, ignoring the whistling Tony has begun.

Cassie follows his lead. "Hey. Sorry I didn't come rescue you back there. Planning the level of extraction necessary seemed like it might get complicated."

He cracks a smile and shifts ,coming around the edge of the chair so that he's beside her. "I get what you mean. I never thought I'd hope for an international crisis but another ten minutes with a slimy politician and I might have called in a terror threat myself just to get out of the room."

"Next time we'll work out signals," Sam offers as Cassie finds herself scooped up out of the chair and shifted in to Steve's lap as he takes the space she had just been occupying. "Next time we're stuck at a party just drop a code phrase. Say 'Marvin Gaye' and I'll pay off a cater waiter to run in screaming."

Bruce frowns. "What if he actually wants someone to play some Marvin Gaye?" he asks. "We wouldn't want to make everyone panic for no good reason. Like the alleviation of boredom for example."

"Jarvis is voice activated," Tony points out, kicking his feet up as Pepper distributes the cake. "If you ask someone to play any type of music any where in the house he'll put it on for you."

Barton shifts behind Natasha. "So you're saying we could have boredom alleviating manufactured mass panic set to our choice of background music."

This sparks a debate between the others on the merits of fighting to music and Cassie feels a knot of tension she hadn't realized she was carrying ease from her insides as she relaxes. It's a sudden though pleasant realization that she's among friends, people she has grown to trust. The last time she made a new friend was nearly five years ago and it's nice to know that she still can.

"I think there's research on this kind of stuff," Cassie contributes thoughtfully, searching her mind for the details of the study. "Fighting to a tempo. I think the original research team used boxers for the study. They had different groups of athletes spar both with and without music and the people who fought to a provided rhythm definitely did better than the people who didn't. It helps coordinate your movements for you. Plus it gives you an added endorphin surge which increases energy levels."

Natasha tips her head thoughtfully. "What if the other person fighting was listening to a different song?" she asks. "Then two fighters would be trying to fight each other while moving to separate rhythms."

Cassie shrugs in response. "I didn't dig in to the study that far," she says. "I can try to find it for you if you want."

The other woman opens her mouth to respond, but is interrupted in a fashion which even Cassie as the daughter of Apollo, god of theatre and by extension theatrical entrances, has to admit is fairly mind-blowing. An extended stream of multi-colored light beams from some unknown point in the heavens and focuses itself on a cleared space on the patio. The rainbow bridge of light is also accompanied with a fairly terrific sound effect involving shattering loud musical chords.

If Cassie knew less about gods and magic, she'd be happy to sit back, enjoy the light show, and wait with curiosity to see what happens next. Knowing what she knows, the bottom drops out of Cassie's stomach and she gets the feeling that whatever is about to happen next is going to cause a stress headache the likes of which were rarely ever seen in human history. The fact that a form appears out of the multi-colored light stream and that that form resolves in to a visage she recognizes as belonging to the Norse god Thor, confirms that idea.

"Greetings my friends!" the god calls with a jaunty wave. His voice booms out across the open space of the roof and the part of Cassie's mind that is forever tuned to analyze sound waves is thoroughly impressed with the pitch and tenor. He strides towards the rest of their group, a red cape billowing out behind him. Cassie supposes Asgaurdians have different standards of average dress. They also apparently didn't have the same habit her godly family members had of magicking themselves in to normal mortal clothes because Thor makes no move to change.

The part of Cassie that isn't rapidly sliding towards what could potentially turn in to panic analyzes the god with a carefully critical interest. The gods she interacts with come from a different culture so the exposure is somewhat fascinating. She wonders if this is a particular aspect of Thor. Cassie's heard Annabeth's cousin Magnus describe this particular god and what he described is nothing like the being walking towards her. Maybe this more public version of the god preferred to look a little more mass media friendly? If everything didn't go to tartarus in a hand basket after the next five minutes of her life ended she'd ask him.

Steve seems to be starting to process that this situation has the potential to go wrong because he shifts and Cassie climbs off of him so that he can get up and make an attempt at running interference. He doesn't really think it's going to work for very long, but she's willing to accept anything that might buy her some time to figure out how to handle this. Theoretically it might have been a good idea to have made a plan for this situation advance, but this moment seems a little late for 'theoretically'.

"Steve!" Thor greets, pulling him in to the one armed hug all guys mortal or not seemed to do universally. The amount of pounds per square inch involved on both sides of that hug is probably high enough to buckle a sturdily constructed wall. "Happy Birthday! My lady Jane has informed me that here on Midgard you share our Asgardian custom of bringing gifts on such occasions as these. I hope you will enjoy this flagon of mead. It is made by the brewers of my people and is suited only for the finest warriors!"

"Thank you," Steve responds and the two both begin to join the rest of the group. As Thor turns his face changes from pure joy to something resembling perplexed confusion. Cassie waits for the hammer to fall.

No pun intended.

Gods she's making unintentional puns.

She really is screwed.

Also, Cassie would really like for someone to acknowledge that her and Steve's ingeniously simple plan of not mentioning her demigod status to anyone until they can control the circumstances has lasted at least a solid two month. The longevity of demigod planning works on a scale resembling dog years! Two month was practically an eternity. Two months may literally be the longest that any long-range demigod plan had ever lasted for.

Someone would really check the demigod record book. Did demigods keep a demigod record? Maybe Chiron or the Praetors Office at Camp Jupiter had one. Cassie resolves to check next time she goes to either camp.

Thor's brow has furrowed as he gazes around the rooftop and at the skyline as though he thinks some kind of mystical force may emerge from the inky depths of the night. Which actually Cassie can't judge because she makes the same kinds of checks everywhere she goes. A mythical monster emerging out of thin air would be pretty damned normal. Exhibition A: Thor's recent entrance.

"I can sense a presence," Thor states, voice low and concerned. "A great and unfamiliar force is here tonight. One I have not felt in recent times."

Everyone else in the group is beginning to look confused. Natasha, Maria, and Barton have all managed to produce weapons from _somewhere_. If Cassie hadn't known better she would say that there was definitely some magic involved in the process. Steve glances back at her and Cassie bites her lip and then nods. The metaphorical gun is right there, she may as well bight the metaphorical bullet. Steve takes her cue and reaches out, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. "Thor. This is my girlfriend Cassie Morgenstern."

Thor still looks confused for a moment but then his eyes land and focus on hers. Sudden understanding seems to dawn on him as some gears click in to place in his mind. Cassie wonders if she's about to be struck by some incredibly high voltage lightning.

Then something nearly as bad happens.

"Of course!" he exclaims, seemingly over joyed at her presence. Then Thor drops to his knees before her and takes her hand, pressing a courtly kiss against the knuckles of the hand that Steve isn't holding. He's behaving as though she's some kind of respectable fairytale royalty. "Greetings fairest Daughter of the Morning Star! Tales of your great deeds have spread amongst the Nine Realms." He sweeps back up to his feet and Cassie is finally coming around to the conclusion that she is not actually about to be struck with a mystical bolt of lightning. "How bears your father? Or your grandfather? We on Asgard glean so little news of the goings on on Mount Olympus and Rome. You must tell me all!"

Cassie inclines her head politely in the nearest approximation of a respectful bow that she's willing to produce at this moment. She's trying hard to control the flush running through her cheeks but she's not sure how successful she's being. At the moment, she's also splitting her focus between the now beaming god in front of her and the suspicious looks she's getting from the group behind her. None of he weapons have been put away yet and at that moment Cassie is highly conscious of the fact that normal human weaponry will hurt just as much as a mystical lightning bolt.

"It is an honor to meet you Lord Thor," she says formally. "My friends Magnus, Alex, Sam, and Margery speak highly of your capabilities and legendary feats." She bights down on her lower lip, considering her next words and then figures she might as well forge on ahead. "And I'm happy to have met more of Steve's friends."

At her words Steve shifts so that he's standing more at her back directly between her and the others who are by now drilling holes in the back of her head with their eyes. He drops a kiss agains the crown of her head. This apparent reminder of their coupletude id anything makes Thor grin even more widely. He claps Steve on the shoulder with a level of force that would probably break the collarbone of a normal human. Cassie receives a similar clap and is glad that her bones are sturdier than the average. She also gives mental props to the Norse god for a slightly lower than expected level of cultural sexism. "Congratulations to you both! You are both mighty warriors and I believe you will suite nicely."

This is all well and fine.

What's not so well and fine? The rather blunt and simplistic exclamation from Tony Stark. "What the ever loving fuck is going on right now?!"

Needless to say, the ensuing conversation is going to be highly uncomfortable. An expected pinching sensation begins to crawl up the back of her neck and settles over her temples. She takes a deep breath and steels herself as Steve gives her a reassuring squeeze. Then she very slowly turns. "Okay," she says, forcing herself to remain calm. "I know you have questions, but trust me when I tell you, this is a really, really long story."

That said, Cassie goes with the shortest possible version of the story she can come up with. She's what happens when someone like Thor has a kid with a normal mortal person. She doesn't go in to the multi-generational issues at play with her particular situation. That's a complex explanation to handle another time if and when it comes up. Personally, Cassie is willing to simply hope fervently that it never does. She also leaves out the fact that there are more people like her out there in the world. That's still not her secret to tell.

Even with this super condensed version, the number of questions she's left to answer (not to mention the rude comments from Stark and a few exclamations of shock and disbelief from the assembled crowd) take up several hours. By the time she's done, a look over the edge of the balcony using her extended sight tells her that it's late enough that even in Manhattan, most people have given in and gone to sleep. The yawn that interrupts the current debate going on about how moral or not it was of her not to mention being a demigod is wide enough to crack her jaw and Steve looks at her in concern.

Cassie just blinks up at him tiredly and shrugs. Apparently that's enough for Steve to call an intervention because he steps forwards to be a little ways in front of her and says "Alright enough," he doesn't shout exactly but his words still carry and echo enough to completely break up the conversation. "She's explained," he states, looking around at each of them in turn as though daring any of them to argue back. "We're done here." Then he takes her hand and begins to tow her towards the doorway to the rooftop. No one tries to stop them leaving but Steve still turns before they vanish and thanks Pepper and Tony for his birthday party.

Because Steve is Steve.

She gives him his birthday present curled up together on the couch in their living room. The grin that spreads across his face when he unwraps the art supplies is worth every minute she spent feeling confused during her trip with Rachel. Steve reaches out for her and pulls her in to him. Cassie hums Happy Birthday to him between her kisses and the two of them don't talk about the major bomb shell they just dropped on hid friends. The others will either get used to it, or they won't. Cassie's done her part, and this is Steve's birthday. As far as Cassie is concerned he can do what he wants with it.

When they wake up the next morning they keep to their normal routine as much as possible. Steve goes off for briefings and training and Cassie goes to her office to sort through more paperwork. In another week or two she might actually be ready to start seeing patients.

Really everything is pretty damn normal until Tony Stark decides that she's his new texting buddy. No matter what else the man is, he is _relentless_ when it comes down to questions. Sometimes Cassie answers and sometimes she doesn't depending on the level of ridiculousness involved in the question's content.

 _Can you see sound? Can you hear color? Does your brain have it's own music system? Do you always know what song is playing? Is it like built in Shazam? Can you fly like Thor does? Do you have a suite? No, forget it, I'm making you one anyway. What do you want your new suite to look like? Are you solar powered? What happens to you during a solar eclipse? If you got dropped on the sun would you die? How hard can you punch?_

Against her better judgement, this last question peaks her interest enough for her to type out a response. _Why do you ask? Are you worried I'm going to punch you for something?_ This is the short and no details provided version of how she ends up spending the rest of her afternoon in one of Tony's more robust Research and Development labs punching large, solid, heavy, objects rigged with pressure plates to see exactly how hard she can punch. If she's being honest, it's actually pretty cathartic and not a little bit fun.

Upside to outing yourself to your new friends as being non-human: It frees you up to use the specially modified and extra reinforced gym equipment.

The afternoon also gives her the opportunity to impress on Tony that she absolutely does not want her abilities to go public. She thinks he probably gets the message, but to be on the safe side she tells the same thing to Pepper and Maria Hill. Between the two women they coordinate all of the P.R for the Avengers and they both agree to keep her full abilities under lock and key. Pepper understands privacy. Maria understands secrets.

Life goes on as normal- well normalish is probably a more appropriate phrase. "Normal" probably doesn't exist when you live in an apartment building with multiple super spy assassins, Ironman, The Hulk, and Captain America. Given her personal history, Cassie is willing to settle for a close approximation. Basically, she's getting adjusted to a new version of normal as a general category.

She gets the office up and running and actually has a few patients. Once she takes a day off to get a kid down to camp. It's definitely a shorter trip than the one from Washington D.C and Cassie is glad that she can help this way. No one at camp asks anything about Steve, the Avengers, or her job so she gathers that Rachel must be doing a good job with keeping her knowledge under lock and key. Cassie makes a mental note to figure out a good way to thank her.

Cassie also manages to meet Sally Jackson for coffee one morning and the two of them have a good long meandering talk about everything that's been going on lately. Ever since Percy introduced his friends to his mom, Sally has been the universal mother figure for most of them and it's a role the older woman takes on like a duck taking to water. It's something that Cassie is immeasurably grateful to have in her life. Talking to friends is one thing, talking to a mom is another.

The whole time Steve is still searching for Bucky. He hasn't asked for her help with the actual searching yet, but Cassie's been brainstorming options for magical location to have ready when and if he does. What Steve does bounce off of her is possible strategies for telling Tony that the Winter Soldier killed his parents. Frankly, Cassie's almost shocked he hasn't found the material from the SHIELD data dump yet. Cassie actually wonders if it's possible that Tony knows more than he's saying and doesn't want to face it yet. She supposes the only way they'll ever have an answer to that question is if they can actually manage to find Bucky and get him back.

However Steve might want to go about that.

In the end though, it isn't Cassie or Steve who finds Bucky, and the person who does eventually find him doesn't do it with files or technology. Instead, Cassie gets a phone call in the middle of the day from Rachel. She's with a patient when it happens so really she shouldn't have, or rather wouldn't have, picked up under normal circumstances. Unfortunately for the newly established status quo of her life, this time her phone is ringing with the "extra super urgent things are going on so you'd better pick up right the fuck now" ringtone.

So yeah, Cassie picks up. She also ends her meeting, clears the office, and locks the door. "What's wrong?" she asks immediately. In her mind she's running through anything between eight and twelve separate scenarios for what could be going on and what she might have to do to fix it. "Where are you? Where do I need to be? What are we dealing with? On a scale of Hydra to Gaea what kind of screwed are we talking about?"

"Cassie calm down," Rachel's voice says over the line. "Gods you're talking like me. Take a deep breath, no one is dying. And _we_ are not screwed. You and your boyfriend on the other hand..."

Cassie groans. In a lot of ways she really, _really_ doesn't want to ask, but in even more ways she seriously has to. Forewarned being forearmed and all. "Okay I'll ask; why exactly are Steve and I screwed? I assume it's to a higher level than normal."

"Right well you know how I sometimes get sleep mugged by random bits of the past or the future thanks to the oracle spirit I'm hosting thereby making me occasionally all knowing?"

Telling herself to be patient Cassie takes a deep breath. If she rolls her eyes a little too, well that's nobody's business but hers right? It's not like Rachel can see it. Plus the two girls have known each other for long enough by now that they have gained sarcasm and eye rolling privileges. "Yeah I think I'm pretty familiar with the Oracle future telling description," she responds. "In fact I'm pretty sure my dad wrote it." At that she pauses in consideration, "Although the fact that it doesn't involve any kind of poorly constructed poetry it's possible someone else did."

Rachel completely ignores her comment without making one of her own and that more than almost anything else (including the emergency ringtone) tips Cassie off to how serious this is. "Well last night I was completely sleep assaulted by 1940s memorize. And by 1940s I mean full on World War II, Foyle's War, Rosy the Riveter memories. All of which just happened to star your boyfriend and one James Buchanan Barnes. Who I have to say was a pleasant surprise. I mean hello Winter Soldier! With the hair, and the eyes, and the cheekbones."

To interrupt what Cassie is sure could turn in to a rather long listing of attributes she holds her phone an inch or so away from herself and whistles shrilly in to the speaker. Maybe it isn't kind, gentle, or subtle, but it's the most direct route available and given the emergency label on this conversation Cassie is currently all for expedience. "Yes fine I've seen pictures I understand that back before he spent seventy years being tortured and forced to assassinate important people by evil nazis Bucky was aesthetically pretty hot. Why exactly does you seeing pre-ice memorize of my boyfriend being bros with his best friend mean that me and Steve are screwed?"

'Well at first I thought it didn't!" Rachel explains impatiently. "I thought I was just having weird ass vivid dreams for the sake of background information. I have those sometimes. My gods you would not believe how adorable Frank was as a kid. Anyway, I figured it was just because you and me had been talking about Steve and after we went shopping for his birthday stuff I did some research on my own. I thought that was just directing my subconscious or something. But then I woke up and I was just innocently getting coffee at my favorite shop when the Spirit of Delphi decided to mug me to show me some apparently really urgent image of Barnes staring at a subway map of Spanish Harlem."

There is a very long pause as Cassie lets this information settle. It takes a moment longer for the pattern it settles in to start making sense. "Thanks Rachel," Cassie says, hoping the tone in her voice makes it clear that she really means what she's saying. "I owe you a coffee. Tell my dad's oracle to suck it next time you see her." After that they both hang up by some sort of unspoken agreement. It isn't really a spectacular enough ending for the monument sized information drop that's just been delivered, but it's really all either of them can come up with. As previously established, Cassie doesn't really do being world falteringly shocked very well anymore.

She calls Steve. She has to. Finding Bucky is his personal mission and now Cassie knows where he is.

"Hey," Steve says. He sounds nothing but pleased that she's called, like it's a bright spot in his day just to hear her voice. It makes Cassie almost hate that she's about to drop the same bomb in his lap that Rachel just dropped in hers. It feels a bit like playing the game hot potato. If the potato was a hand grenade that would do much more than just burn someones hands.

"I found him," Cassie blurts out. Her words make whatever Steve had been about to say seem to die in his throat. The only sound is the rush of static over the line and a low rush as Steve breaths. "Bucky Steve." She ads it on because there seems to be a pretty decent chance that that sentence could use some clarification. "I found Bucky. Or, I guess Rachel did. It doesn't matter. I know where he is. We can find him." The silence persists as Cassie waits for him to speak. "Steve?" she asks tentatively.

Finally the silence breaks and Cassie can only assume that Steve has finally come to his own resolution over what he wants to do. "Gear up," he says. "I'll meet you downstairs at the basement exit in ten minutes."

Nine minutes and about twenty seconds later Cassie is standing at the exit Steve mentioned. She's dressed in her combat jacket and blue jeans and a pair of sturdy boots. Her bow isn't out yet but Cassie can't keep herself from fiddling with the charm where it hangs around her neck. From the half-checked double take Steve does when he sees how she's dressed, Cassie thinks that it was probably a good decision not to pull out her magical weapon just yet.

"I forgot you hadn't seen this yet," Cassie says.

Steve shifts a shoulder in response. "Will it work against regular weapons?" he asks. "I know you said you use something different."

She considers the material of her armor for a moment. "It should," she says. "A magically protective layer is still a protective layer. It would be different if we were talking about trying to use a few of the weapons I have. The options I have for this trip shouldn't land us with that problem."

That seems to be enough of an explanation because Steve nods. They get in to one of Stark's super efficient town cars and between the two of them they manage to work out exactly how to get to where Rachel saw Bucky. It probably takes too long to drive but given that she's wearing armor and Steve is in a toned down version of his stealth suite they aren't exactly inconspicuous at the moment so public transport is most definitely out of the question. Steve is practically humming with pent up energy and emotion and they don't speak but he takes her hand from across the car and grips tightly when she offers her palm.

After about twenty minutes of highly tense silent driving Cassie signals and Steve pulls the car in to the first available space. The parking fees are probably going to be astronomical astronomical, but Cassie figures they can probably charge it to Stark and move on. Cassie glances around Spanish Harlem as they step out of the car and takes a moment to orient herself. Knowing where everything is now may save her time (or her life) if she has to run or fight later. She dearly hopes for everyone's sake that things won't come down to that, but she wants to be prepared just in case they do.

"We're going to have to canvas on foot from here," she tells Steve, leaning over the top of the car. "Rachel's vision wasn't any more specific than this neighborhood."

Steve nods and Cassie is grateful that he has so far refrained from asking for any more details of the vision or how Rachel's abilities work. The oracle lurking in Rachel may belong to her father, but that doesn't mean Cassie knows much about how the details work. If Rachel's visions are like Cassie's but stronger, then what the other girl gets is long runs of images and the occasional future predicting rhyming verse and non of it is under her control. What she sees is what they get.

"We'll canvas by the block," Steve decides. "Start in the center and work our way out. I'll take the numbers going up from here. You take the numbers going down. We go for twenty minutes and then come back here to regroup and take a new direction. Call out if you see any sign of Barnes."

Personally Cassie is a little surprised that Steve is calling the other man Barnes. She supposes it's probably Steve trying to shift in to mission mode and make this less personal so he can concentrate. He's trying to shift his perspective however he can. In his head right now, Cassie might even be Morgenstern to him. A fellow agent or teammate more than she's his girlfriend.

Points for professional attachment she supposed.

With the plan agreed on Cassie and Steve part ways and begin an improvised grid search of the neighborhood. Manhattan streets got more crooked and less predictable the farther from the center of the city they were so they can hardly work off of a perfect grid. However, this is still about a million times more predictable than some of the places Cassie has tracked people through like for instance, the Labyrinth, or the woods of rural New Jersey.

After about ten minutes of searching on foot Cassie decides to move for a better vantage point. With two leaps she goes from the ground in an ally, to the top of a dumpster, to half way up a mostly rusted out fire escape. It shakes and clangs a little against the side of the building as it takes her weight, but the metal seems to be solid so Cassie begins to climb and as she does she's reminded with painful clarity of doing the same thing to get to a rooftop to shoot off of during the battle of Manhattan. She also figures she really isn't missing much. Cassie is up to date on her tetanus shot and a fall from this height will bruise her at worst.

Once she's on the roof she has a clearer view of the activity on the surrounding streets. She keeps low, moving from rooftop to rooftop and using her enhanced eyesight to scan more distance at once. Every one of her senses seems to expand to take in more detail and Cassie recognizes why. She's _hunting_ now. Apollo is her father but Artemis is her aunt. The gods might not pass on or share genes in the same way that humans did but some straights were still probably bound to stick.

Ten minutes pass. Then fifteen. Cassie is actually about to make her way back to the center of the grid she and Steve are working when she sees it. There's a flash of movement in the street below her that catches her eye. With normalized vision it just looks like a man in a baseball bat moving quickly and trying to avoid attention. A quick zoom of Cassie's vision reveals that the man has a sharp jaw, defined nose, and distinctive cheekbones under a fringe of untidy dark hair.

Cassie feels a lurch in the pit of her stomach as she recognizes him. This is Barnes. This is Steve's best friend Bucky. They've been looking for him for months and now Cassie's found him.

The only question left is, what exactly should she do now?

 **A/N: So there you have it guys. At long last another chapter. I apologize for the wait but life has been a little bit busier than I was expecting lately. I hope you guys think the wait was worth it! I know that this chapter is more plot based than fluffy but I felt like this was important for moving the story along. I also decided to spill the demigod secret to the rest of the team because no matter what I do with Age of Ultron it involves Thor, and anything involving Thor would mean that he recognizes Cassie for what she is. I couldn't see any possible way around that so I decided to just deal with it now. Anyway, what did you think? Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: So I own nothing. Nothing. Nothing Nothing. Nothing is what I have. Nothing is what I own and the nothing I'm getting paid for that nothing I own should serve as proof to anyone who cares about checking should serve as proof of the lack of existence of anything I have. I am not Rick Riordan or Joss Wheadon or any other nice person who has more than the nothing I do in terms of ownership with all of the characters involved in this story besides Cassie. Sh is actually mine and I made her for free and will probably never ever be paid for her. Basically, I should absolutely never be sued for anything I've ever done in my entire life including publishing this story. End Rant.**

Deciding on what the next thing to do in this situation should be is probably something that should be carefully thought over. It's something that a group of highly logical people with cooler heads would probably insist on discussing all together in a nice group. There might even be a large King Arthur style round table with chairs of equal sized carefully spaced out around it. The discussion might involve lists, and bullet points, and outlines of complex strategical plans based off of live intelligence and up to date psychological evaluations.

However, Cassie is well aware of the fact that life very rarely if ever works out the way she thinks it should. She has no round table, no group of level headed individuals with which she could discuss what to do, no plan, and most importantly no time to come up with one. Essentially, everything is currently looking pretty much normal for the parameters within which she lives her life.

Given her situation, Cassie puts off logical planning and simply acts on instinct. In this case, that instinct means launching herself off of the edge of her rooftop and out in to empty space. A heartbeat later, that empty space gives way to an unoccupied stretch of pavement shielded from public eyes and directly in the path of James Buchanan Barnes the Winter Soldier.

Depending on what Barnes actually remembers about his past, this decision is either a perfectly sound course of action, or one of the worst decisions she's ever made. Either way the decision has been made, and as they say on the playground "no take backs". So Cassie simply stands her ground and waits to see what Barnes is about to do.

When Barnes doesn't immediately move to draw a weapon and attempt to murder her Cassie begins to dare to hope that this situation might go some semblance of something that resembles the adjective "well." In the hopes of not bucking the trend Cassie holds her hands at shoulder height with her palms open so that Barnes can see her. Then, moving slowly the way she would with a spooked pegasus, Cassie moves to put away her bow.

"Sergeant Barnes?" The name and title come out like a question. It's not quite how Cassie plans to say them but it makes decent sense. She honestly doesn't know who exactly she might be talking to. The man in front of her could be Barnes, but he could just as easily be the Winter Soldier. Or she could be dealing with a different man entirely. "Do you remember me?" she asks. "It's alright if you don't."

In the moment between her words and Barnes' response Cassie count her heartbeats to keep track of the time. Just when she's starting to think that the man may have taken a vow of silence without telling anyone (which would be really inconvenient) Barnes opens his mouth and speaks. "You're Cassandra," he states. His voice is raspy as though he's fallen out of the habit of using it and in to the habit of gargling with handfuls of gravel. "You were there that day at the river."

Cassie nods decisively, figuring she should do her best to solidify any connections Barnes feels he can make with any certainty. "That's right Sergeant." Slowly she lowered her hands and relaxed her stance, easing herself closer to him by half a step. "I'm glad that you remember that day. Do you remember the rest of that day? Do you know who else was there? Again," she tacks on hurriedly. "It's alright if you don't."

Barnes frowns and shakes his head like someone shaking water out of their ears after getting out of a pool. Cassie tells herself to remain calm and takes a slow half-step backwards. She's not sure if the head shake means he's trying to block out her words or if he's dealing with memory flashes. Her only experiences with memory loss boil down to Jason and Percy. Frankly, she's not sure if being mind wiped and cry-frozen on a regular basis for seventy years works the same way as having your identity erased by a meddling peacock goddess.

It's not like its a question she can Google.

"How did you find me?" Barnes demands. He doesn't raise his voice or make any threatening movements. In fact, he goes very, very, still and his eyes are flicking all over the alley instead of focusing on her directly. He's ready to bolt but is still trying to decide weather or not he should and the best way to go if he does. Cassie only hopes that the way he chooses isn't the one that involves him barreling straight through her.

If he does that though, Cassie thinks she might actually stand a better chance today than she would on a different one. Barnes' stillness and the lack of immediate fear of death lets Cassie relax enough to extend her senses. The extension tells her that it's not just a coincidence that they've found Barnes today. Whatever's happened to him since Washington, right now he's bleeding and if her sense of his current internal pressure are right he has been for a while. Cassie can't actually see the blood for herself, but she'd be willing to bet that it's being absorbed in to the dark fabric of his clothing.

Demigod pro-fashion tip: Black clothing will hide all manner of unpleasant stains.

Cassie decides on the fly that the way to go is to keep him talking until Steve gets there. She isn't sure exactly what they'll do then, but at least it will be something closer to a group decision if they have time to make one. If nothing else, any fight, should one occur, will be two against one rather than one on one and everyone will be less likely to get injured or killed.

Explaining Rachel isn't something she feels like she'll be able to adequately do at the moment so Cassie bites her lip and says. "For now let's just say that I'm friends with some very strange people who know how to do very odd things and live in some truly bizarre places. One of them found you and told me and Steve where to look. He's been trying to find you since the river."

"She's right," says Steve's voice over Cassie's shoulder. Barnes starts badly in surprise and it takes everything in Cassie not to imitate him. Apparently she was more interesting and absorbing to Barnes than she thought she was. Also, Steve is apparently better at sneaking up on her than she thought. Her senses were trained on the potential threat in front of her but she still kicks herself a little for not noticing. If Steve had been a threat and not her boyfriend, she could have been dead before she had the chance to turn around and notice anyone was there.

Steve has his shield stowed and is closing the distance between them, his hands mimicking the open palmed gesture she had used just minutes before. "Ever since I figured out it was you who pulled me out I've been looking for you." He steps forward again and the length of his stride takes him to standing a few inches in front and to the side of Cassie. "I'm not here to fight you Bucky," he says calmly.

Barnes takes a step back, exactly mirroring Steve's step forwards to maintain the gap of space between them. That isn't going to work for very long though. He's only got so much alley he can back down before he's back in the open street with minimal cover. "Why have you been looking for me?" he asks. He shakes his head again "You shouldn't have come looking for me."

Cassie notices Steve shift again. This time it's a change that brings him about six inches to the side and Cassie suddenly realizes that he's half in front of her now. With a few steps he's moved himself between her and what he deems to be the most dangerous element in the situation. He's made himself a human shield in case Barnes snaps or attacks.

She rolls her eyes and makes a soundless movement to the other side so she still has a clear line of sight to Barnes. Cassie can accept that it's part of Steve's nature to want to protect the people that he cares about and that she falls in to that category. What she does not accept from anyone is being coddled without a good reason.

"You'd have looked for me," Steve says. "Before any of this we were friends. Best friends." He takes another step forward and this time Barnes doesn't back up. "It was a lifetime ago, and I thought you were dead. But you and me we made a promise. We said we were in until-"

"-The end of the line," Barnes cuts in, finishing the sentence.

For a long moment the two men stand staring at each other. Cassie feels like she could be watching a scene frozen on screen, her eyes bouncing back and forth between them as the moment stretches out like an elastic band right before it snaps. Silence rings through the space as Barnes' words hang in the alley.

"I used to say that to you all the time when we were kids," Barnes says. His eyes have gone distant like he's looking at something very far away, but then they snap back to Steve and he frowns as he looks him up and down. "I think you used to be smaller."

Steve almost visibly deflates as the tension he's been holding for what has to be months now bleeds out of his body like a punctured balloon. He nods several times, swallowing hard around a knot in his throat. "I did," he says horsely. "You- you lived next door. You and your folks used to look out for me. Especially after my Ma died."

Barnes teeters on his feet. "Steve," Cassie murmurs, a warning in her voice. "Not to alarm anyone or break up what I know is a very long awaited reunion, but right now I think Barnes is about to pass out from blood loss."

As hypotheses go, that one is definitely an attention grabber. Steve has just enough time to look at her with wide, startled, blue eyes before Barnes decides to prove her right by stumbling sideways and collapsing against the wall. She's not sure it's exactly sound as far as scientific method goes, but frankly she isn't vindictive enough to ever wish for a wider data pool than what she's got.

What to do next is still a question in flux but Cassie is almost sure that there must be something in the Girlfriend Handbook about not letting your boyfriend's oldest friend die via exsanguination. Even if that old friend is a probably mentally unstable assassin who's spent the last seventy years in and out of cry-freeze having his mind wiped and programmed by crazy Nazis. And could Cassie just take this moment to mention how little she ever expected to think that sentence?

Moving quickly Cassie ducks past Steve and across to Barnes. The man's eyes are only half-open and a quick pulse check tells her that it's a damn miracle he's conscious at all. "Pulse is thready," Cassie mutters. "I have to figure out where the blood is coming from. I might be able to heal him up enough to get back to the tower but I need to be able to see the injury first."

Steve still seems frozen but Cassie's words move him in to action as he approaches her. "What can I do?" he asks.

"Get him laid out flat and help me get his jacket off," Cassie instructs. Steve obeys her instructions immediately and Cassie digs out a pair of tweezers. She has no idea how Barnes' body heals when left on it's own and until that changes she's hesitant to use her magic and hope it ejects whatever is keeping the wounds open and bleeding automatically. It would with the average person and seems to with everyone else she's tried but the way their lives all tend to go it seems like Barnes would be the one and only exception and Cassie isn't looking to take that chance until she has to.

Once Steve has Barnes' jacket and shirt removed Cassie does a quick survey and counts three separate bullet wounds. She doesn't bother factoring in the caliber because at the moment it doesn't matter that much. With Steve's help Barnes is shifted enough so that Cassie can get a look at his back and what she finds makes her swear out loud. There are only two exit wounds which means there's a bullet still lodged in Barnes' body.

Cassie lays a hand against his chest and forces her healing senses out of her own body and focus on Barnes. The scan locates the bullet and Cassie swears again but keeps it internal for Steve's sake. Even the people who were bravest in battle didn't like seeing their best friend full of holes with their condition declining. The bullet that's still stuck in Barnes went just far enough to nick an artery and then lodge there.

She takes a steadying breath and positions herself for the best angle possible. "Steve," she says, keeping her voice as steady and calm as she can make it. "I need you to help me with this next part. Right now that bullet is keeping the wound open but its also applying pressure and backing most of the gap. I need to get the bullet out before I can heal him but as soon as I do the bleeding is going to pick way up until I can get him healed."

"You need me to apply pressure?" Steve guesses. Her reply is a nod and Steve grabs Barnes' discarded shirt and uses brute strength to tear it in to smaller sections, gripping the largest to use as a compress. "Ready."

With a final deep breath Cassie repositions herself the last millimeter she needs to and inserts the tweezers in to the wound. In a strange way she's actually happy that the hole has enlarged from its original size. Otherwise she should have had to make a new incision to pull the bullet out. With grim determination she maneuvers the tweezers until she feels them come in to contact with the hard metal of the bullet and pulls it free. As she predicted the maneuver produces a veritable spurt of fresh dark red blood that must be coming from the damaged artery.

It doesn't get to bleed for very long. Steve bears down against it with the fabric in his hand and Cassie presses one palm against Barnes' heart and the other just above it as close to the wound as she can be. She wills the magic to leave her in pulses and can almost feel the damaged artery, veins, muscle and tissue knitting back together. She pulls back as soon as the bleeding has stopped. The wounds are only about half healed but she wants to save something for later in case it's needed. The worst case scenarios are that Barnes isn't completely stable or that they'll get attacked by whoever shot him before they get back to the Tower. Best case scenario she'll have time to refuel before doing a second stage healing with more magic and better medical equipment.

With a relieved though tired sigh, Cassie sinks back on her heels. Her hands are tacky with drying blood and the entire alley looks like a scene out of a horror movie. She meets Steve's eyes and manages a weary though triumphant smile. "He's stable," she says. "Now let's get him back to the Tower."

The process of getting Barnes situated in the Tower is... tense... and awkward. Those are the weakest possible accurate adjectives Cassie can find for the atmosphere that surrounds the occurrences that make up the following events. Understatement was another talent Cassie and other demigods all seemed to posses in spades. Maybe it was genetic. Maybe it was a result of the circumstances they lived in. Either way Cassie kind of wants to find someone in H.R she can ask about weather it can go on her resume under special skills.

Cassie is preoccupied on the car drive back to the Tower. She sits in the passenger seat with it all the way reclined so that she can be facing Barnes to monitor him. She wouldn't be quite so occupied with it, but she doesn't know what Barnes' body is used to as a baseline so she can't really tell how his system is reacting to her magic. For the time being she's using the stats she normally applies to Steve as an estimate because he's the only other guy around with a similar Super-Soldier Serum situation. Alliteration is another thing she should see about adding to her resume.

Steve himself is busy driving. Or at least, he's trying to keep himself busy that way. The fact that Cassie can see his knuckles turning white on the steering wheel out of the corner of her eye tells her that his method isn't actually working very well. It's possible that if she checks later his grip might be permanently molded in to the material of the steering wheel.

Two descriptions that have never applied to Cassie are 'emotionally unaware' and 'situationally oblivious'. She has friends who are both, one, or none of those things but those are all stories best kept for another time. The point is that Cassie is completely aware of the fact that whatever fallout comes after this is going to be expansive, uncomfortable, and in most other ways hideous for everyone involved.

The best case scenario she can come up with at the moment actually revolves around Anthony Stark being either incredibly understanding and emotional mature or completely uninterested in resolving the unanswered questions surrounding the biggest tragedy of his life leading him to be oblivious to the circumstances of his mother and father's death. The best case scenario isn't looking all that likely at the moment. Tony Stark is many things but uninterested, emotionally mature, and rational aren't three of them.

"You know what we might be getting in to here," Steve murmurs quietly.

Cassie nods and then remembers that they're facing different directions so she says "Yeah I know. I'd keep your shield with you until we've talked to Tony. I don't know what he knows but I think we should assume that it's enough." She doesn't specify enough of what. She doesn't need to. "And Steve," she tacks on. "Even if he doesn't know, I think you should tell him. It's just- It's not fair to bring someone in to his home otherwise."

One of Steve's hands lands as a warm weight on her back and Cassie reaches around to cover it with one of her own. "The Greeks had hospitality laws didn't they?" he asks. "I think I remember reading something about that."

He's trying to give them both a distraction, however small it might be from what's going on and Cassie jumps on the opportunity. Whatever mental reprieve either of them can gather before the upcoming storm hits is one worth indulging in. "Oh yeah. If you were invited in to someone else's house they were basically agreeing to make you part of the family while you were staying there, and if you went in you were supposed to hold up your end of the deal. The rules of hospitality then weren't just manners they were, like, divine laws. The old myths are full of stories about different gods showing up at mortal houses in disguise to test if the mortals were acting the way they were supposed to. Hera and Demeter each did it a couple of different times. Mostly disguised as elderly poor women. If the mortals did what they were supposed to they normally got rewarded."

"What about if the mortals didn't hold up their end?" Steve asks, his hand making a gentle circle between her shoulder blades.

Cassie can't help the automatic wince she makes in reaction to the memories of those particular stories. "That normally depended on exactly how bad the violation was," she explains quietly. "If the transgression wasn't particularly egregious or could be explained because the mortals didn't have anything to give then sometimes all they got was a bad scare and a warning. Sometimes the gods made the mortals go on quests or complete trials for recompense. But if it was really bad, and I mean like BAD bad the mortals were turned in to animals, or monsters. Like King Lycan. He murdered one of his sons and stewed him and then fed it to the gods. When they realized what Lycan had done they turned him and his remaining sons in to wolf-men. That's why werewolves are called Lycanthropes."

Steve is silent for a moment and then sighs. "Is this your way of telling me that werewolves are real too?"

The absurdity of this kind of conversation happening makes Cassie actually laugh. "Yes. Werewolves are real. But I wouldn't worry about it that much. We killed off a lot of them in the last war when they sided with Gaea and the giants. The rest of them are running scared and probably will be for the next century or so. Wolves don't generally attack unless they have superior numbers and a good chance at winning."

"Okay," he says, sounding like he's doing his best to wrap his head around the new information. "So we'll just ignore the werewolves then."

It's the last thing either of them says before they've reached the entrance to the Tower's parking garage. Steve pulls in close to the elevator that will take them to the other floors and beaches the car there. They can come back and move it later if one of Stark's numerous disappearing employees doesn't take care of it first. Of course, that's assuming that they don't get murdered by Tony or anyone else upstairs when they find out everything that the Winter Soldier has done.

Getting Barnes in to the elevator and up to the floor that houses the wing that's been set aside for medical situations where Cassie works is less tricky than the process of getting him in to the car had been. For one thing he's not actively bleeding as heavily as he had been before. For another Steve seems determined to take his weight and it's something he is completely able to do thanks to his strength.

When they get to the medical floor Steve deposits him in to a bed and Cassie hooks him up to an I.V of fluids and heart rate and blood pressure monitors. She also changes the bandages on his chest and is relieved to see that the makeshift compresses they applied in the alley aren't soaked through. She is worried about his internal pressure though so she calls over to Steve to find out Barnes' blood type. Steve answers the question without a second thought and Cassie sets up a transfusion line.

"That's as much as I can do for him right now," she says. "I'm not reading too much major internal damage anymore. I think I got most of it with the first healing. If he starts crashing out from something I can't detect now later on I'll have enough power left to keep him alive but until I get some sleep and something to eat I don't really want to try again. Regardless he's stable for the moment. If his serum works the same way yours does than his own system should take care of it. I'll probably know if that's how things are going in an hour or two."

Steve nods and drags in a tired breath as he scrubs a hand over his face. "I need to go talk to Tony." He says it like a man who may be walking to the gallows and the tone causes a pang in her stomach. She knows what it's like to know that you might be about to burn a bridge between your friends. What happened with Nico, and even with Luke is a prime example. Both boys had managed to help bridge the gap eventually, but it had almost been too late for Nico and Luke had died. Cassie doesn't want that to happen with Tony. Both for her sake and for Steve's. All of them bicker and rub each other the wrong way from time to time but at the end of the day they've always managed to still be friends.

She stands and crosses over to him, going up on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. Steve still looks exhausted and his gaze is fixed somewhere in the middle distance but he still loops his arms around her waist, holding her close and taking the majority of her weight without a second thought. "Do you want me to be there with you?" she asks quietly.

Steve shakes his head and ducks down, kissing her quickly before pulling back. "No. I think this has to come from me. But maybe..." he lets out another breath and brings himself together as much as he can. "Maybe you could just... be close by? Incase-Incase something happens."

Cassie nods and leans up to kiss him again. "Meet him in the training room," she suggests. "It's neutral ground and there aren't any windows you can smash through. Plus most of the surfaces are already padded. I'll meet you in ten minutes. I'm going to enter the paperwork so that the nurses can monitor Barnes for me while we talk. If things go well I don't want to have to deal with administrative problems on top of everything else."

He agrees and approximately nine minutes later Cassie is arriving at the door of the gym and listening to the shouting match argument going on inside. The door is still shut so she can't hear all the details but the fragments she can hear are definitely enough to give her the gist. In this case, the gist is really just about all that she needs to know what she needs to. Walking through the door will directly deposit her in to the middle of a war zone. Maybe literally.

It's a little embarrassing to admit for someone who has fought gods and titans, but Cassie is actually scared to open the door. All of the other fights she's ever walked in to were different. In each of those situations she could work up an adrenaline rush. Most of the time the fate of the known world hung in the balance and Cassie would do whatever she had to do.

This fight isn't like that.

Jumping in here will be inserting herself in to a polarizing fight between two friends. Friends who might at the moment be trying to kill each other. And with these two people it was actually only a question of time until one of them succeeded.

As she lifts her hand to push open the door there's the distinctive clack of high heeled shoes on tile and Cassie turns, planning to take an extra moment to clear the area. Anyone who witnesses what's about to happen could be a potential problem. The best case scenario is that someone figures out Captain America and Ironman are fighting and start some kind of vicious press rumor. The worst case involved an innocent bystander being accidentally crushed or slammed with one of Tony's repulsers. Either way, random witness equals bad.

She's saved the trouble when the women in the hallway turns out to be none other than Pepper Potts. The CEO is dressed impeccably and balancing on a pair of stiletto heels that make Cassie's feet ache with sympathetic pain. She skips straight down to business and simply asks "Is it true?"

Cassie heaves a deep breath and lets it out through her nose. "Is there currently a nonagenarian formerly brainwashed super soldier by the name of James Buchanan Barnes upstairs recuperating in the medical bay upstairs? Yes, there is."

"I see," Pepper says levelly, swallowing hard. Then she lifts her chin and levels Cassie with an even gaze. "Is he safe?"

It's a fair question. In fact it's the same question that's been tumbling through Cassie's head like clothes in an industrial spin dryer for the last half hour so she gives herself a moment to consider absolutely everything she knows before answering. It's still a snap judgement given that there's a definite clock on the situation directly tied to the mean average of Steve and Tony's combined levels of patience.

"To us?" Cassie qualifies. She has to because the question of what Barnes might do to himself in his current mental state is an entirely separate issue. "No, I don't think so. I'm not sure he'd have come back here if it was his decision but he was bleeding out on the pavement and someone else had to make a different call," she meets Pepper's eyes. "Steve wouldn't have made this one if he had thought Barnes was a threat. Barnes is his oldest friend, but the people who live here are his team."

Her statement must ring true because Pepper nods after a moment and brushes a non-existent wrinkle out of the folds of her skirt. "Well then we'd better get in there before those two break anything expensive. Or you know, kill each other." With that she breezes past Cassie, pushes the door open, and strides through the doorway like she's off to conquer a small country.

Or dominate in a board meeting.

Either way it's impressive and pretty damn badass.

Cassie follows closely behind and as it turns out that's a very good thing. The moment that she and Pepper picked to enter the room is also apparently the moment that Stark's temper snaps and it's only Cassie's reflexes kicking in on time that keep both her and Pepper out of the line of fire. It messes up Pepper's previously completely professional hairstyle, but Cassie figures the other woman will probably forgive her for that considering that the other option was being fried by Tony's advanced technology.

"Hey!" Pepper snaps as the two of them scramble to their feet. "I'm sure that this is one of those conversations that we can work out sitting calmly around a conference table upstairs. You know this nice building we own only has about sixty different rooms set aside for exactly that purpose."

Steve is panting slightly but otherwise doesn't look much worse for ware. "I think we might be past that point Miss Potts," he says, falling back on formalities that probably shouldn't apply anymore. The fact that he's using it sets Cassie on her guard. Pepper is Steve's friend. Captain America knows Miss Potts. Steve is disassociating in case this fight drags on.

"Why would you bring him here!?" Stark shouts. "Why did you go looking for him. You could have decided not to but you Captain Righteous couldn't leave well enough alone could you? I thought that might happen so I guess I just have one question left, why the FUCK would you bring that man in to my house?! Where I work, where I eat, where I live, where Pepper lives. Your girlfriend, the rest of our team- You just risked _everything_."

Steve takes a step towards Tony but backs up again when Stark raises one gauntleted hand, a repulsor glowing in his palm. "Tony-" he tries but Stark cuts him off.

"No!" he shouts, his hand shaking. Cassie takes a step back, pushing Pepper towards the wall behind her. If things are about to go nuclear reactor civil war in here than her primary responsibility has to be to limit human casualty. Right now Pepper is the only person in the room that Cassie can actually classify as both civilian and fully human. "HE KILLED MY MOM!" Stark explodes.

A beam of energy fires from his gauntlet and rockets straight at Steve. Steve deflects the blast with his shield and the energy bounces off, pinging off the concrete reinforced walls of the gym like some sort of crazed, deadly, pingpong ball. It's moving too fast for Cassie to track with her eyes and even if she could the sudden flash of life has left her half-blind.

That's when the ball of blazing energy hurtles directly at her face. Cassie doesn't even stop to think about what she does next. It's pure and simple instinct to throw up her arms and protect her face...

It doesn't hurt.

Cassie can't explain it. She's slammed her eyes tightly shut and isn't quite sure she wants to open them yet. What she knows for sure is that she should be in more pain. Maybe she should even be dead but clearly that's not the case. At the very least she should have been thrown backward and probably in to the wall.

The room is dead silent and Cassie cracks open one eyelid. What she sees shocks the other one wide open. A crackling ball of energy fizzes and pops between her fingers. It's like she's caught a dodgeball of lightning in her bare hands. She wonders in the part of her brain that isn't scrambling to make this development make sense is wondering if this is how Jason and Thalia feel.

The projectile isn't completely under her control though. It shudders and skips like a sentient being that knows it's being restrained and isn't happy about it. Cassie's barely holding it in place and if she can't figure out how to dissipate this she doesn't want to know what might happen.

Thinking fast Cassie realizes that she must be able to control it because energy and light were so intertwined. She's controlling the light particles but not the electricity. Maybe if she can disperse the light the energy will dissipate all on it's own.

It takes a freakishly high level of concentration but she treats the process like sifting lumps out of flower. The light particles are the thinner grains of powder while the energy is lumps. In this situation she's the strainer. Eventually the light particles are gone and all Cassie is left holding is a few interconnected balls of energy. Holding her breath, Cassie slowly spreads her hands and the web holding together the rest of the charge breaks.

Once it's gone she looks out at the rest of the room. Pepper looks stunned and Steve seems worried. Cassie can't blame him since he did just see his girlfriend utilize supernatural powers for the manipulation of light and energy. Right now Cassie doesn't look at either of them, she's staring at Tony Stark. If there's one thing her little display has managed, she's rendered Stark speechless. The list of people who can say that has go to be pretty damn short.

"Barnes is dangerous," Cassie says slowly. "So what? Everyone in this room is _dangerous_. If I were anyone other than who I am what you just did would have killed me and your own girlfriend. Natasha and Barton are literally assassins, and while Doctor Banner may feel guilty he's killed plenty as the Hulk. Thor may care about humans but over the centuries he and his family have obliterated entire civilizations- entire species' worth of life. I've fought wars and probably will have to fight more and I have sentenced living creatures to Tartarus, a fate worse than simple death."

She walks forward. "You can be angry with Barnes," she says. "You can be furious. With him, with Hydra for giving the order, with your parents for going on that drive, with yourself for not going with them that night even though you would have just ended up dead too. You can be angry with me and Steve for finding Barnes again and bringing him in. But if we're going to start throwing people out for committing murder then every damn member of our team is about to be homeless. You cannot have two different sets of rules."

Stark still looks almost murderously angry but he manages to speak around teeth grinding together so hard Cassie can practically hear it from where she stands. When he speaks next his words are controlled and yet unsteady. "If you know so much," he gets out. "Then how the fuck do you suggest I handle this?"

The question is probably meant to be rhetorical and shut her up but Cassie answers anyway. "The way I see it, that depends on who you blame when someone dies from a gunshot. Is it the person who made the weapon? Or the one who aimed the gun and pulled the trigger." She crosses her arms over her chest. "Personally, I don't blame the gun."

In this metaphor, Barnes is the gun.

Tony's face is ghostly pale, the flush on his cheeks the only color in his face. His jaw works and his adams apple bobs and Cassie is half worried he isn't remembering to breath. All she had wanted to do was force Tony to stop and think. She hadn't wanted to verbally hammer him in the solar plexus. Then he jerks away from her like he can't stand to look at her face and turns towards Steve. His gaze is fixed at some point over Steve's shoulder. "I don't see him," he spits. "I don't hear him. As far as I'm concerned that _man_ doesn't exist."

Steve's jaw tightens and he gives a single stiff nod. "Understood."

Cassie watches intently, her eyes flicking between the two men. Something tells her this isn't over yet. Sure enough, Stark hasn't finished saying his piece just yet. "When this goes south Rogers, I won't be saying I told you so. I'll be waiting with the biggest gun I can find ready to shoot it in to his head." With that he pivots and storms out of the room.

"I'll talk to him," Pepper mutters. "Get him to calm down some. You'd better keep Barnes out of the way for now." Then she moves to leave, following after Tony at a pace faster than any Cassie would have managed in her shoes. Literally

That's especially true right now since now that she's got a second to notice it her head seems to be spinning. Fortunately she doesn't think she's about to pass out. Really this feels more like she hasn't eaten in a while. Regardless she's feeling less than optimally fantastic and more than a little wobbly. This moment doesn't feel like one where it would be smart to question gravity so Cassie simply feels for the edge of a stack of training matts and sinks on to them with a relieved exhale.

Steve is next to her in seconds. "Are you okay?" he asks urgently. "The charge didn't hurt you did it?"

"No," Cassie says, shaking her head. "No I'm okay. Just that catching thing I did isn't really something I've ever done before and it wasn't just pure light I had to deal with, there was electricity in there too. Light I can handle, but electricity isn't really in my wheelhouse. I guess it took a bit more energy than I was planning on using."

One of Steve's hands lifts and he hesitates for a moment before cupping her cheek. Cassie gratefully tips her head in to his palm and lets him take the weight, shutting her eyes for a moment. "What you said changed everything," Steve says. "Before you came in Tony was ready to fight until one of us was dead."

Cassie can't help the yawn she lets out before she straightens up and rubs her eyes. "I'm just glad I could help."

He's quiet for a moment as his fingers slip up and through her hair, pushing it back behind her ear. Cassie shivers slightly as the pads brush over the shell. "Did I make the right choice?" he asks, exhaling the question on a shudder of breath. "I just- Was this whole thing a mistake?"

"Hey," Cassie says, covering his hand where it curled around the side of her face. "Breath for me okay?" Steve complies, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "I think," she says slowly. "That Barnes is here. And you need to be prepared for the possibility that he might not exactly be Bucky right now, but he is here. You oldest friend isn't dead and right now he's right upstairs." She turns her head and presses a feather light kiss against his palm. "Wether the choice was right or wrong it's been made now, and out of all of the crazy things I've seen I have never seen anyone turn back time. All that's left to do is, go forward."

With one more breath and a nod Steve dips his head to kiss her. The kiss isn't exactly chaste, but it's sweet and gentle with just an edge of fervency and Cassie thinks that this- this right here and right now is what it must feel like to be cherished. She leans in to the contact, weaving her fingers in to the soft hair at the back of his head, maintaining the contact for a little longer after Steve moves to back away before she lets the kiss end. "Forward to where?" he asks, his voice calmer and more even than it was before as he backs away a few inches.

Cassie smiles up at him. She hops to her feet, gripping one of Steve's hand in her own. "Right now?" she checks. "I vote that the two of us go get some food because so long as we aren't dead yet, food is still important. And I'm starving."

Steve agrees to her proposition with a tired smile and the two of them leave, making their way out in to the cool air. Day has faded in to night as the events in the gym unfolded and Cassie buttons up her coat the rest of the way to keep off the chill. Steve walks beside her, one hand staying in hers, the other tucked in to his pocket. He doesn't seem like he wants to talk about what's happened that day at the moment and for the time being she lets that stand. If it goes on for too long she'll push but not yet. He's entitled to a few hours stuck in his own head to go over everything.

Since Steve is preoccupied Cassie takes the lead and guides them both to a diner with a good few of Avenger's Tower. It's the same one she used to work at two years ago when all of this started. It feels like it's been a lifetime.

They don't talk much as they wait for their food and less as they eat it. What they do talk about has nothing to do with Barnes or Tony or anything else concerning the Avengers. Cassie talks about working there and actually spares a few minutes to chat with one of the waitresses who still works there from when she did. Steve in turn talks about working on docks during his teens. By unspoken agreement they keep everything light.

All of their problems will be waiting for them tomorrow.

They pay and walk back to the Tower together. She knows she's not imagining it when it seems like Steve's steps are becoming slower and heavier with every fraction of movement they make back towards home. It gets to the point where Cassie is walking slightly ahead of him, pulling Steve gently along behind her. No matter what Tony said he hasn't kicked them out of the Tower, it's still home. And right now home is exactly where they need to be.

When they get there and step in to the elevator Cassie squeezes Steve's hand and makes him actually look at her. "Are you coming to bed?" she asks quietly.

She expects the answer she gets but she still kind of wishes she had gotten a different one. Steve lifts their joint hands and kisses the back of hers. "I need to go see Bucky," he says.

Cassie nods and gives him a small smile. She props herself up on her toes and kisses him on the cheek before she drops back. The elevator gives a merry ding, the sound interrupting the ACDC Stark normally uses for elevator music. The floor that they actually live on has arrived. "I'll let the medical staff know you're going to be there. Try not to stay up all night. Or if you're going to, make sure you eat something."

Steve bends and kisses her in return. This time it's more of a peck than an actual kiss but the sincerity of the regret over not going with her is written all over his face. "Thank you," he says, and there is something raw in his voice when he says it.

"You're welcome," Cassie tells him.

Then the doors slide open and she makes her way back to their apartment. She gets ready in silence, letting the events of the day wash over her as she washes her face, brushes her teeth, and puts on her pajamas. By the time she manages to collapse on to her side of the bed she's completely exhausted and absolutely ready to sleep until she wakes up.

Maybe, just this once, her night will bring her clarity instead of confusion.

A girl can dream.

Can't she?

 **Author's Note: So there it is guys. I hope you all enjoyed it and tell me what you think. I know this one took a while and I'm sorry about that but I managed to simultaneously fracture one wrist and sprain the other so typing has been a little hard (painful) lately. Anyway I hope this was worth it and that hopefully some of you guys have still stuck around? No matter what this chapter is up now so I hope those of you who have stuck around enjoyed it. If everything goes according to what I have in my head then the next chapter should move us much closer in to Age of Ultron. This is also the point in the story where things start getting much less cannon because I wanted Bucky involved. I have plans for him and I'm figuring out a different way to get through Civil War. What did you think of Tony's reaction? I wasn't sure about it. What did you think of the chapter in general? Your comments are always appreciated! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: No I do not own anything that you see here and recognize as being written by someone else. I am also not getting paid. Which sucks.**

It's Cassie's experience that recovery from a serious trauma hurts significantly more than the initial injury ever does. Partly that's because recovery always takes longer. Even when the injury can be healed using magic residual pain sticks around and seeps down in to your muscles and bones. Cassie herself sometimes experiences phantom pains in her side and an ache in her hip some days from a bad fall taken while fighting Gaea.

Psychological damage is no different, or if it is, the difference is that it hangs around for a whole lot longer. Cassie would run out of fingers and toes before she could finish counting off the friends she has whom she knows still suffer nightmares even after the three major wars of her lifetime have been fought and won. Nightmares last longer and are more constant than any physical pain ever will.

Sargent James Buchanan Barnes is not the exception to this rule no matter how much Cassie wishes he could be, for Steve's sake if nothing else. It's not surprising. Cassie doesn't need to check records to know that after seventy years of HYDRA, Barnes is the single longest surviving P.O.W in recorded history. That has to mean that they're dealing with the kind of accumulated psychological damage that not even the most doomsday capable trauma therapist would be prepared to try to handle.

Cassie is not that doomsday capable trauma therapist. She's not any kind of trauma therapist, highly capable or otherwise. In fact, she's not any kind of therapist at all. She took the exact minimum of psychology classes required for her to get her degree and fulfill her various academic requirements. She can categorize and recognize the signs of psychological damage. Being able to actual fix it didn't make her curriculum.

In medical school she had had the option to choose to go in to therapy and she had actually considered it. The discovery that the classes required involved a heavy level of self-awareness and self-analysis had been enough to give her doubts. Over two decades as a demigod have left her with no illusions whatsoever about her own psychological health. She could definitely be doing worse, but she doesn't think she has ever been or will ever be in a position to try to talk anyone else through their problems in any way any kind of healthcare professional would approve of.

All of that said, she does her best to try to help Bucky as much as she can. She carefully monitors and records any bit of medical information she can get from him while he recovers and archives all of it in case it turns out to be useful later. The scans she takes use both technology and her own magic to compile everything and give her a clear picture of what she's working with. As far as she can tell, his system is comparable to Steve's if slightly less extreme. She gages his healing to be a little slower and from that is able to estimate a timeline for when he might wake up.

In the meantime, the rest of her energy goes in to handling the day to day running of the medical bay, and making sure that both she and Steve stay as far out of Tony's way as possible. This proves to be easier than it might have been and Cassie assumes that Pepper is making the same efforts on her end. When their significant others are less inclined to go 'Clash of the Titans' on each other every time they pass within a ten yard radius, Cassie plans to schedule in some better quality time with the woman.

What's harder is keeping Steve running as normal. A Super Soldier metabolism worked substantially faster than a normal persons which meant that a lot of food was required to keep Steve's system functioning. It also meant that sleep, while not always as necessary for the average person, was encouraged when available. Actually, Steve is a bit like Percy was after his dip in the Styx, always hungry and very occasionally in need of a good nap. At least, that's how Steve is supposed to act when he's taking care of himself.

A day in to Bucky's stay in the medical bay and Cassie becomes convinced the this isn't actually Steve's plan. He isn't sleeping and seems to be forgetting to eat if Cassie doesn't remind him. She puts up with this for exactly fifty-two hours before she digs in her heals and literally drags Steve back to their apartment. The fact that that is something she's actually physically able to do without facing resistance is proof enough that she has a valid point.

It doesn't stop Steve from arguing with her verbally, but that streak lasts exactly long enough for Cassie to snap at him and shove him backwards in to their bathroom for a shower. She orders pizza while he's in there and he eats half an entire pie in somewhat mutinous silence as Cassie matches him. When he's done Cassie takes his hand again and leads him to their room, pulling him down on to the bed with her.

He protests tiredly right up until the moment his head hits the pillow. Moments later he has dropped off to sleep in mid sentence and Cassie sighs and curls up on her own side of the mattress to catch up on some of the hours she's missed. She wakes up four hours later to find Steve staring down at her with an expression that's all warmth and gratitude. He's using one hand to prop himself up and the other is playing idly with a stray lock of her hair.

When Steve sees that her eyes are open and she's awake he leans down and brushes feathery kisses over her forehead, nose, cheeks, and eyelids before finally meeting her lips with his own. "Thank you," he says. The words are quiet and sincere and Cassie knows the the means every letter of them. "You were right. I should have listened to you sooner."

Cassie smiles back at him and gives a small shrug before stretching her neck and back gently to remove the kinks. "You're welcome. Should I try to make this a teachable moment about your life being easier in future if you just take my advice on medical issues or is that implied?"

"I would say the 'you were right' covered that," Steve replies smiling a little wider. He kisses her again and they both allow themselves to get lost in it before they both have to get up and get back to work.

She feels a bit guilty about it, but she considers the mission Steve gets called out on in Brazil to be a small blessing. It's the kind of mission that falls right in the sweet spot of not actually being too dangerous, but definitely necessitates Steve, and it'll keep him busy and out of the country for a few days. She all but pushes Steve out the door with a smile, a warm kiss, and a promise to get in touch somehow if anything happens.

Of course with Cassie 'anything' comes with an extremely broad definition. It involves a spectrum that could include anything from Bucky twitching in his sleep, to missing a train, to falling down the stairs, to another alien invasion, to one of her godly relatives asking her to do them a favor, to Tony Stark deciding to do the Hokey Pokey in the Iron Man suite on live TV. Given what she knows about Tony Stark, that option doesn't actually seem that unlikely.

Alright. Fine. Steve is talking mostly about something happening with Bucky when he says 'anything'.

Still, having Steve safely occupied with a small, safe, paramilitary situation in the jungle a continent away is a bit of a relief. It's business as usual and it removes some of the pressure that's she's been building and living with behind her eyes. Ideally it'll also give her an opportunity to talk to Bucky, and maybe prepare him a little before Steve gets back. Steve does his best to be polite and kind and always tries to do the right thing, but no matter what he says he will have expectations and hopes and Cassie is going to try to prevent those from being crushed and let Bucky heal.

It's going to be a special kind of hellish balance to maintain. Fortunately Cassie has always been a decent tightrope walker. Seriously she had to take a course on it at camp and she got full marks from Chiron.

Bucky Barnes wakes up at the morning after Steve leaves on his mission. This is good because his vitals have been holding steady for a while and the question of when he would join the world of the living has been hanging like the Sword of Damocles. It's not such great news for Cassie given that she's left instructions with the staff of the medical bay to call her any time day or night if Bucky wakes up while she's not there, and the time he chooses is three AM on one of the very few nights Cassie has actually managed to go to bed at a time a normal human might actually acknowledge as sane.

Regardless, she does check her phone when the buzzing wakes her up at three in the morning and squints at the text on the screen. Once her dyslexic and sleep distorted brain manages to sort out the meaning of the words she grunts, rolls out of bed, and hauls ass to the medical wing still wearing the shorts and oversized shirt she'd worn for pajamas. The only concession she makes to trying to look more like a human being is that she pauses to throw her hair up in to a messy bun so that it isn't blocking her eyes. After a moment for thought she throws on her lab coat and shoves her notebook in to the pocket.

When she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror she almost wants to laugh. This will definitely not be going down in history as her most put together look of all time. Somewhere up on Olympus Aphrodite might be crying for the apparent death of her sense of fashion. The lab coat over the top really just sealed the impression.

Oh well. Too late to do anything about it. If Barnes wanted a put together looking doctor he should have waited until a more reasonable time o wake up. Seriously two hours shouldn't have been too much to ask for. By then it would have been five and Cassie probably would have been awake anyway. Waking up with the sun tended to take on a whole new meaning when you were Apollo's kid.

She walks in to the medical wing with her head held high and hopes she's projecting the kind of confidence she normally only reaches for when she has to command troops in battle. Barnes is a soldier so maybe he'll be able to appreciate the effort. If he can't then that's just tough. The first time Cassie ever met him he tried to murder her with a very nasty assault rifle. It's a little late to be worrying about making a good impression.

Not to mention pointless.

It takes her exactly twelve steps to reach the bed that was allocated to Barnes when they had first brought him in. The man is sitting in his hospital bed as still as a statue. It actually takes Cassie a moment to be sure that he's actually breathing. For all she knows, this could be a living statue and the actual Barnes might have escaped through the window.

She's spent time talking with Carter and Sadie Kane. The Egyptians have some weird ass magic up their all linen or cotton natural fiber sleeves and Cassie personally does not trust it. The idea that one of them might have gone evil and started working for HYDRA thus contributing some of their freakish robot-like statue things to their cause. Fortunately she is able to confirm through his heart rate and breathing that Barnes is actually Barnes and not an evil shabti look-alike.

Still, she files the matter away as something to discuss with Carter and Sadie the next time she makes it out to Brooklyn.

"Hello Sergeant Barnes," she says after taking a last calming breath to put her thoughts together. He doesn't turn his head or do anything to acknowledge that he's heard her speak. Cassie decides to forge ahead. "We were wondering when you might come around," she does her best to keep her voice light and calm. It's her doctor voice and it's one carefully cultivated by medical school and training at camp. "You've been out for about two days. You lost quite a lot of blood and went through some shock and trauma. How are you feeling now?"

Barnes continues to stare blankly ahead of him. Cassie bites her lower lip so hard there's a chance it's about to start bleeding. There's an option she can use that might get her a reaction, but it's risky. In fact it's more than risky, it's cold. It might also create an inhibitor for future progress, but she's not necessarily a patient person and they probably don't have a lot of time anyway.

With that in mind Cassie reaches her decision and takes in a final deep breath to steady herself. She straightens her spine, firms her shoulders back and raises her chin imperiously. "Status report Soldier." Cassie makes the words an order instead of a request or polite inquiry.

The effect is instantaneous. Barnes snaps to attention, rigidity freezing each of his muscles in to place as he looks at her. His hands flex on the railings of his hospital bed, the metal digits on one side leaving an imprint behind. His eyes are filled with a cold fury that Cassie would consider terrifying if she hadn't seen people wear it before. For a moment she worries that she's touched the wrong trigger and Barnes is about to attack.

Well... Too late to turn back now.

She meets Barnes' eyes levelly. "Current situation threat assessment," she orders. If Cassie were five years younger she'd be crossing her fingers behind her back in the hopes that her bet is about to pay off. Hopefully Barnes will comply with the order, make a threat assessment, and consequently realize that he's not actually in any danger. At least, not from her and not right now.

When Barnes finally relaxes it takes every ounce of Cassie's will power not to deflate herself. At the moment the most she allows her body to do is roll her shoulders forward, releasing the newly accumulated tension in her neck. Hopefully the ice will now be thoroughly and completely broken and they can continue on to establish some new variation of normal.

"No current threat," Barnes says as his eyes clear and focus. He blinks and looks her up and down. "I still remember you," he says. If Barnes were any less trained in emotional disguise and repression Cassie thinks that those words might sound a bit more confused. As it is they come out flat. "When I woke up in a hospital bed again I thought maybe I wouldn't. But I remember everything."

At those words Cassie actually beams at him. "Then you remember that we've never actually been introduced between all of the fighting, bleeding, running, shooting, and almost dying." She offers him her hand. "My name is Cassie Morgenstern. I'm a doctor, and I'm dating your childhood best friend whom you may or may not actually remember much about at this point."

For a long moment Cassie's hand is left hovering between them. Silently she urges Barnes to break through and just take it. Finally, after an incalculable moment, Barnes stretches out his hand and takes hers. The skin of his palms and the pads off his fingers are layered over with calluses and his nails are chopped down nearly to the quick. He applies barely any pressure until Cassie slightly tightens her own grip, trying to silently reassure him that a firmer shake won't hurt her. She can't help but wonder if this is the first none violent or clinical contact Barnes has had with another human being in the last seventy years.

Cassie thinks it probably is.

"My name-" Barnes starts and then breaks off. He swallows thickly as though there's a lump in his throat he wasn't expecting to find there and isn't sure he can shift. Then he raises his chin in a movement that's all steady defiance and cold determination as he says, "My name is Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes."

The declaration makes Cassie want to smile again. This is a victory, and if Cassie has her way it'll be the first of many. "It's a pleasure to meet you Sergeant." Their tentative handshake ends and she takes a few steps backwards, pulling over her rolling desk chair and lowering herself in to it. Once she's settled she looks back at him to find that Barnes has tracked her every movement with the eyes of a hawk. "Would it be alright if I asked you a few doctor questions? If you aren't feeling up to it right now you can say so and I'll let us both get back to sleep."

The fact that she's asking, that she's left it up to him how they proceed seems to knock him for six for a moment before he gathers himself and gives a short, sharp, nod. "You can ask," he states. _But I might not answer_ is left unsaid.

Cassie nods and extracts her notebook from her pocket. "Do you feel at all dizzy?" she asks. "Any nausea or lightheadedness?"

Barnes shakes his head. "No symptoms of blood loss or concussion when I woke up," he says. "I'm also not feeling any signs of muscle or bone damage. There's some tissue sensitivity around the bullet wounds."

Her hand works fast as she writes out everything Barnes is telling her in messy medical short-hand. All of the information will have to be entered in to his digital medical chart and filed correctly later. If Cassie is determined to do one thing, it's keeping all of the paperwork her job involves in order. It's becoming a point of personal pride for her. Also the fact that Barnes is offering all of this information up freely might officially make him her most helpful patient ever.

"Judging by the speed of your metabolism and the rate of healing of your other wounds I would expect that sensitivity to stick around for another day or two. There'll probably be some stiffness for a few days after that." She glances up from her writing sharply to fix him with a sharp expression. "Are you hungry? Do you have any appetite at all?"

Barnes keeps himself frozen and in check for a moment before answering as though he thinks admitting that he experiences something as humanely weak as hunger is something she might judge him on. Then he seems to come to some kind of conclusion and infinitesimally shrugs one shoulder. It might be the most normal gesture or movement Cassie has seen him make so far. "Yes," he mutters.

With a decisive nod Cassie flips her notebook shut and slides it back in to her pocket. "Alright then. At first glance everything seems good. At least, physically you're good and frankly that's all I'm actually qualified to judge you on or treat you for so we'll just start there." She stands up and can't help the yawn that threatens to crack her jaw. "I'll have someone take in some food for you and I'll come back in a few hours when the sun is actually up to do doctor stuff."

Okay so that's not the most technically educated way she could have phrased her sentence. It's still freakishly early in the morning and Cassie personally isn't ready to deal with the foibles of the finer points of medical grammar and the English language. It's enough to trip her up at the best of times, and in Cassie's opinion any time before there's a singular ray of sunlight visible is _not_ the best of times.

"I don't like being poked and prodded," Barnes says stiffly. At the mention of anything relating to potential medical testing tension has begun to radiate off of him like a very stressed out sun. A generator of focused anxiety.

Cassie shakes her head lightly with a final small smile. "Neither am I." She leans over slowly with each of her movements telegraphed and softly lines up her fingertips with one of the healing bullet holes. After a moment of intense concentration a solitary spark winds it's way down Cassie's arm and over the veins in her hands down her fingers and on to Barnes' chest. The spark of magic targets the injured tissue and is absorbed in, borrowing beneath the skin until Cassie actually senses the bruising recede. With that Cassie steps back and shrugs. "Lucky for you I'm not that kind of doctor."

With that she turns on her heel and walks out of the room. She figures she won't get a better exit line no matter how hard she tries and the part of her that's closely related to her father's dramatic tendencies appreciates that fact. How you end an interaction is as important as how you start it.

On the way out the door she leaves orders with the attendant on duty for the night to order Barnes some food, all high protein and high calorie and make sure it actually gets to him. Cassie has to make it an order because the poor woman she employs for these hours is looking at Barnes like she thinks he might jump up and start murdering people with the feather pillows. Actually, some of the people she knows could probably pull that off so it's not such an impossible idea that Barnes might be able to do it too.

Once she's out of the room and back in the living room of the apartment she shares with Steve she curls up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate and sits staring at her phone where it lies on the coffee table. She normally adds cinnamon to her hot cocoa the way her mother did for her when she was very little. Those memories and the feelings of comfort that they inspire is probably why this is what ambrosia tastes like for her.

The last of the cocoa slips down her throat just before it starts to go cold and Cassie sets it aside. Then she reaches out and types two simple words in to her phone. **He's awake.** Then she puts her cup in the sink, plugs her phone back in, and goes to bed.

There's no point in waiting for a response tonight. When Cassie and Steve had first started dating he had added her name to the operation updates bulletin SHIELD (whatever was left of it) kept on his missions. Cassie wasn't completely sure how the system worked or who was running it but what she did know was that she got alerts on her phone whenever Steve was headed back from a mission. Before that alert came, Steve wouldn't have access to a cell phone or any other means to contact her with unless he could find a helpful agent to pass a message.

The alert she's waiting for isn't there when she wakes up the next morning so Cassie goes about her day as though everything is still normal. At least, as normal as anything ever can be in her life. Which admittedly is not exactly Football Sunday levels. In fact, it's more closely related to "Dear Gods An Asteroid Is About To Strike Earth" levels. One lightning strike in one million kinds of normal.

She makes her way down to the cafeteria in the Tower and retrieves several breakfast trays, balancing them precariously along her arms she makes her way back up to the medical wing and over to Bucky's bed. She lays a few of the trays to the side on one of the empty beds and hands several more over to Barnes. "Breakfast," she announces. "I wasn't sure what you wanted or how much you would eat so I got some of everything that was there," she shrugs. "I hope you like Bacon. Stark seems to think it's an essential part of breakfast. Or at least, the chefs running his kitchen downstairs do."

Barnes blinks up at her for a moment and then gets down to eating. Cassie pulls up the same chair she had used the night before and pokes through her own bowl of yogurt with granola and fruit salad. She pulls a face and pushes the bowl of fruit towards him when she reaches the bottom. "Do you like kiwi?"

This actually draws a response from Barnes. "Why don't you?" he asks. He's already polished off two plates and is working on the third.

The face that Cassie had pulled becomes more extreme without her input. "Well partly it makes my tongue itchy," she explains. Chiron had actually once thought that that was the first indicator of an allergy. This had caused concern given how rare allergies actually were with demigods. Apart from Frank's lactose sensitivity Cassie actually doesn't know any demigods who have any. "Partly I just don't like the taste," she adds on. She shakes the dish at him. "Do you want it or not?"

Barnes seems to consider for a moment before figuring that it doesn't make much difference and takes the bowl she's offering. Maybe he thought for a moment that she was trying to poison him. However, Cassie has to admit that as far as potential poisoning attempts go, plainly offering a bowl of slightly squashy green kiwi isn't the best one. Besides, this bowl _is_ one she's been eating from for the last ten minutes.

When they're both done eating (Barnes is done first despite the fact that he ate approximately four times as much as she did. The Tower grocery bill is about to go up considerably. Maybe that'll turn out to be billable to the government. Maybe it'll be tax deductible) Cassie sets their dishes aside.

"Okay. So they're two different ways to do this next part." Barnes looks up at her and Cassie can tell she's gained his complete attention. "There's the typical medical way," she says. "You're doubtless familiar with that one. I don't think the basic principals have changed very much."

Barnes tips his head. "Or?" Clearly the idea of the normal medical way is one he knows well and hates dearly. "What's the not so typical way?"

Cassie shrugs. "Well it's a lot quicker, but a bit more personal," she prefaces. "I don't know what you might have been told about me, or more accurately about what I can do, but I have a certain skill set. Essentially I can learn everything that I need to do with a touch and well," she laughs humorlessly. "A little bit of awkward Greco-Roman mythologically based magic."

Silently Barnes stretches an arm out to her, exposing the bare skin of his forearm and nods to her. Cassie takes this as a sign that he's opting for option two and takes his arm with both of hers. With her eyes shut to concentrate, Cassie tends her medical senses and allows her gift to wash over Barnes like a full body scan. Slowly the information download forms in her head, giving Cassie Barnes' full medical history moment by moment. When she has a completed analysis Cassie pulls her hand back and nods, entering the information in to her files on a small tablet.

"How am I looking?' Barnes asks.

"Good," Cassie replies. "Your pressure and heart rate are normal. All of your physical damage seems to have reversed almost completely. Physically, you are just fine."

Barnes narrows his eyes at her very slightly. "Why did you say it would be more personal? I didn't feel anything when you did... whatever you did."

It takes Cassie a few minutes to figure out the best way to explain what she needs to. "It's a little bit complicated," she starts hesitantly. "I'm not even completely certain how the ability works. It's just something I can do so don't ask me for too many details okay?" She waits for Barnes to nod before she continues. "When I do a scan like that I get everything," she says. "I don't just figure out what your body is doing now, I see everything that's healed and broken already. You fractured the knuckles of your right hand three times between the ages of fifteen and nineteen before you learned how to punch with your wrist straight, and before the serum you had Raynaud's." Barnes ever so slightly raises an eyebrow at this pronouncement so Cassie elaborates. "It's a circulatory disorder. Your hands and feet would have gotten cold easily."

At that moment her phone beeps to tell her that she has a visitor in the lobby downstairs asking to come up. The message comes with a live video stream from the security feeds covering the front desk and Cassie taps to enlarge the image and blinks in surprise. The face of Rachel Elizabeth Dare is staring back at her with a meaningful expression on her face as though she's actually looking directly at Cassie. The other girl's fingers are tapping impatiently against the reception desk and she's constantly shifting her weight from foot to foot.

With a sigh Cassie types in the command to allow Rachel entrance and sends a quick text giving Rachel directions to her and Steve's apartment, telling her to meet her there. She pinches the bridge of her nose and gathers herself for a long explanation. Explaining things to Rachel can be an experience similar to facing down the Spanish Inquisition. Personally Cassie thinks Rachel may have missed a calling as an interrogator for the FBI.

When she looks up at first glance it seems that Barnes is staring blankly at the far wall. A quick check on Cassie's part shows her that what he's actually doing is watching her closely in the reflection caused by a window in the opposite wall. It's a good move tactically and one Annabeth would probably appreciate.

Cassie stands and Barnes shifts his attention to her in a flick of a glance that happens so quickly it's almost imperceptible. "I have to go handle a situation with an old friend," she says. "I'll be back soon to give you a tour of the building. There are some empty apartments on our floor you can pick from. I think they should be move-in ready but even if they aren't, this building employs enough cleaning people that it shouldn't be too hard to get it set up. You shouldn't stay stuck here in the medical wing any longer than you have to be."

After that she ducks out and goes to meet Rachel. She's about halfway back and walking through a hallway that's all windows on one side, providing a fantastic view of the city below, when she finds Rachel by running straight in to her. It's only a combination of quick reflexes and years of training on both of their parts that keep both of them standing.

"Ow!" Rachel exclaims. "Gods Cassie! You're as bad as Percy and that guy tried to stab me the first time we met because he thought I was a killer indestructible skeleton soldier. What is up with you? You are normally so much better than this. And wow my head hurts. Has your skull always been that hard? I think you might have given me a concussion. Thank the gods your a doctor anyway."

Biting her lip to cut off the bizarre urge to laugh Cassie reaches out and puts a hand on the top of Rachel's head, feeling a goose egg bump forming below her mess of thick red curls. "Here," she says. With the tiniest bit of concentration Cassie is able to send a few small sparks of magic in to her friend, sensing the bruising reduce and Rachel's headache vanish. "No concussion," she says, withdrawing her hand with a small smile.

Rachel tips back her head and shakes her hair out of her face, reaching up to the side to try to twist the hair in to some kind of controlled braid. "Good because I'm pretty sure when you have a concussion you aren't allowed to look at screens and with the amount of work I have to get through that would be a totally major no-go. But right now that is _so_ not important. I haven't heard anything from you in _days_ _!_ Did you and Captain America of boyfriend fantastic-ness find Sergeant Barnes with the fantastic jawline? Is he here? What's-"

She doesn't get to finish her question because that's the moment that a giant demonic looking bat creature decides to crash through a panel of windows to try to kill them. Which really is incredibly inconsiderate truth be told. But that's evil bat demons. They attack anytime they want with not one thought given to anyone else's schedule or timing preferences.

After several years of training Cassie has a finely tuned reflex for not wanting to die and that reflex is probably what keeps both her and Rachel alive. She launches herself forward, knocking in to Rachel and sending them both to the ground. It's covered in broken glass but the movement takes them momentarily out of range of the creature trying to kill them so Cassie's willing to live with the minor cuts and bruises. Presuming she does, you know, actually live.

By an unspoken agreement Cassie and Rachel roll in separate directions, splitting the target and hopefully distracting the demon enough to buy them a little more time. Cassie follows her instincts and summons her bow and quiver, shifting and maneuvering as best she can to try to find an angle she can shoot from and actually hit a vulnerable point that might kill whatever this beast is. The fact that she can't recognize the demon is worrying. Rachel follows her instincts and screams.

Both valid strategies for facing a monster. Granted they come from two very separate philosophies. Well, mixing methods provides a healthy variety which after all is key in a healthy monster facing offensive.

Cassie fires off several arrows at areas that should be vulnerable like the monsters eyes and nose but the projectiles bounce off. Firing at the toughened skin and hide of the creature's sides yields the same unsatisfactory result. In a fit of frustration Cassie fires in to the monster's wing and finds to her shock that this time the enchanted silver manages to tear a piece away like it's tissue paper.

A flash of inspiration strikes her then as she remembers an exhibit she saw in the natural history museum what feels like a million years ago. It had been some old man's butterfly collection and it had included glass fronted case, after glass fronted case full of the colorfully winged insects. Each individual one had been splayed out and stuck to the paper with a collection of pins through the edges of the wings.

With that imagine her head Cassie launches herself straight up so that she's firing from above and manages to get off four shots in rapid succession, sinking two arrows in to each wing and pinning the creature to the floor. The creature screeches in fury and pain and Cassie prepares herself to launch in to the air again. Rachel catches on to what she's doing and seizes one of the ricocheted arrows, darting forward and stabbing it through the wing closest to her. Cassie manages to fire several more shots, firmly pinning the beat in place.

That would be fantastic if Cassie hadn't slightly misjudged her landing. Instead of dropping safely to the floor she ends up falling through the air with nothing but the creature itself below her. She tries to adjust her fall path but as anyone who has ever tried to change the direction of a fall in mid air will know, that's practically impossible. There are things to do to keep herself from completely face planting and Cassie does them, bending her knees and controlling her own personal gravity as much as possible. Unfortunately the creature's fur turns out to be slippery and wire like in consistency, allowing for no purchase and Cassie is sent spilling sideways on to the floor.

The impact knocks the breath out of her lungs and Cassie lays stunned on the ground as the creature screeches and writhes barely feet away. Cassie gasps and tries to move. She can't just lie there! The bat creature isn't dead, just trapped and pissed off and Cassie's arrows won't keep it where it is for very long. Rachel is a few feet away shouting for Cassie to get up, for help from anywhere. From her angle on the floor it looks like Rachel is throwing pieces of the damaged wall and window at the bat creature's head.

With a groan Cassie rolls out of the way and barely avoids a flailing set of claws. The impact has jarred her shoulder badly and her ribs ache with an immediately blooming bruise. This fight needs to end, and it needs to end soon.

What happens next happens so quickly that even Cassie's enhanced eyesight can barely follow it. Something clamps down over her shoulder and Cassie barely has time to process the feeling of hard metallic fingers before she is practically thrown sideways down the hallway and comes to a stop next to Rachel. Her ribs grown in protest at the fresh impact and her vision whirls and goes fuzzy for a moment before settling. When it settles she has to blink for a few moments because what she's seeing isn't making sense.

Bucky Barnes is directly facing off with the bat-like demon, the bloody bandages on his chest still in place. He seems to be punching the creature repeatedly using his metal hand. Thinking quickly Cassie shouts his name to get his attention and then knocks and fires an arrow. It makes the creature rear back and screech but Cassie's angle is wrong. She adjusts and fires again and Barnes catches the arrow by the shaft. "Aim for the mouth!" she shouts. "The inside of the mouth!"

Apparently that's enough as far as instructions go because Barnes turns and rams the arrow through the roof of the creatures mouth and up in to it's brain. His metal arm sinks in to it's gullet as far up as the upper arm and Cassie hears a disgusting squelching noise as he pulls it free. Then, with a sound like a bean bag puncturing, the monster disintegrates. Eventually all that's left behind is a pile of yellow sulfurous sand.

For a moment there's nothing but silence and the faint whistling of the wind as it blows around them and in through the shattered window. Cassie then hauls herself to her feet and reaches one arm out so that her skin is under a beam of sunlight. Her ribs heal and her shoulder reduces itself. Several pieces of glass revere themselves out of various cuts on her arms and legs and once they're out Cassie turns and pulls Rachel up behind her.

Rachel stands shakily, expelling a deep breath and looking not a little bit shell shocked. She shakes it off fairly quickly though which Cassie supposes is a side effect of dealing with this kind of thing and being able to see through the Mist. Although in truth prophets don't actually get attacked very often since they were considered sacred. Cassie always wondered why her father's prophet was considered more sacred and precious than she was as his daughter. Even now it sometimes leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Well," Rachel says haltingly. Her eyes are fixed on Barnes who is breathing hard and the pile of sulfurous monster remains at his feet. "I guess that answers my question about weather or not you found Sergeant Jawline."

Barnes is looking at the both of them, or more specifically at Rachel. He's blinking like that one sentence is more confusing and disorienting than the unnamed demonic creature of evil he just killed. The question of what Barnes might have actually seen flits through Cassie's mind. She wonders if it's possible that a side effect of what HYDRA might have done to him over the last seventy years might be allowing him to see through the Mist. Maybe all of the electrocution fried the part of the human mind that works on denying what it can't explain.

With a deep breath Cassie steps between the two of them and makes a broad gesture. "James Barnes meet Rachel Dare and vice versa," she turns more towards Bucky. "Rachel is the friend who helped us find you."

Barnes frowns very slightly. "The one who lives in a strange place," he says, clearly remembering what she told him before.

Rachel's eyes narrow, first at Barnes and then at Cassie. "You know I could decide to take exception to that, but seeing as the strange place I live in is a cave in a hill designed, conceptualized, and created by _your father_ I don't think I will."

With a role of her eyes Cassie mutters, "How nice of you."

"I try."

The wind whips Cassie's hair across her face and she makes the decision to move this little post-nearly dying party to a different locale. Maybe a less breezy one. She chivvies Rachel and Bucky back to the apartment and pushes them inside, locking the door behind them. "JARVIS," she calls, looking in the direction of the ceiling. "You there?"

"Indeed Miss Morgenstern," the smooth name of the British programed AI says. "I have been monitoring the hallway and noticed the windows breaking. Shall I put in a request with the maintenance department to do clean up and have the window replaced?"

The offer makes Cassie release a sigh of relief. She might have to explain what an AI is to Bucky later. Gods only know how that conversation is going to go. Maybe she can get Banner to do it. Rachel at the very least is continuing on as if everything is still normal. She looks pale and her freckles are standing out starkly against her face, but she's also turned her attention to the fruit bowl Steve likes to keep stocked and seems to be trying to decide on which apple to eat.

Cassie nods as she says "Please do. Thank you JARVIS," even though JARVIS is a robot and probably can't see her. Unless he has cameras in this apartment and can watch her movements. Which would be weird.

Crap now that thought was going to fester.

Once that's taken care of she calls up to the infirmary and says to call her if anything goes wrong. She also leaves instructions for her staff to work on the paperwork and standard day to day issues that need to get done. Then she turns to address the elephant (read: metal armed super soldier and prophet) in the room.

Telling the skinny versions of the necessary explanations of who and what everyone else in the room is takes several hours even without most of the details included. By the time she's done Cassie's throat is sore. She had to explain her own recent history, a short version of her own messy genealogy, and tell Rachel about finding Bucky. Rachel listens and contributes where she can and Bucky says maybe six words the entire time to prompt answers on pieces of the story she hasn't brought up. What she doesn't tell either of them is anything that Steve doesn't know yet. She has a feeling routed deeply in her bones that doing that wouldn't be fair to him.

When she's said everything she knows she turns the conversation over to Rachel and lets her talk about her studies, work, and life in general. It also gives her the opportunity to hear about how everything is going back at camp. Thankfully, enrollment is up and none of the older campers have died or gotten hurt since the last time she was there.

Really the entire afternoon feels incredibly disjointed from the events of that morning. It's almost- almost _normal._ It's chatting with an old friend she hasn't seen in a while after explaining her life story to her boyfriend's not dead best friend.

Okay so maybe her "normal" isn't actually NORMAL.

She knew that already.

After a lunch of extreme mack and cheese Rachel starts blinking sleepily and yawning. After the third yawn in ten minutes she apologizes and explains that she's been running on coffee for the last couple days waiting to hear about Barnes. After that Cassie practically shoves her in to the guest room to nap. "You don't have to leave until tomorrow morning," she says. "I'll wake you up at six."

Under different circumstances she thinks Rachel would protest more but at the moment she just sprawls over the covers and is snoring in minutes. When she walks back in to the living room she find's Bucky curled in to a ball on the floor in front of the window. It doesn't look comfortable, but his back is flat against the wall and his eyes are shut. His breathing is even so Cassie leaves him where he is after covering him with a blanket and putting a pillow down near his head. She curls up on the sofa with her computer to do some work that doesn't need to be done in the office.

About twenty minutes after she gets started she hears the sound of the computerized lock on the door popping open. She looks up with a frown and feels herself go instantly on the alert. Her hand goes up to the charm on her necklace that will summon her bow on instinct and sets her computer to the side. "JARVIS?" she asks cautiously. "What's going on? Can you give me a report on anyone approaching the apartment?"

"It would appear that Captain Rogers has returned," JARVIS reports neutrally. "I opened the door because he seems to be in some distress and I do not believe you wanted it broken down."

Cassie frowns and stands up, moving towards the door. "Thanks JARVIS."

"You're welcome," the AI replies. "Shall I engage my Privacy Settings?"

Well that answered her earlier mental questions. "Please do," she requested. What followed was a slight clicking noise which Cassie took to mean that she was now well and truly alone in the apartment. And none to soon as the sound of footsteps pounded down the hall.

Deciding that it might be better if Steve didn't burst in all freaked out given that she has an Oracle and Steve's oldest friend turned super soldier asleep in the apartment, Cassie hurriedly steps out to meet him. Steve is coming down the hallway and moving fast looking somewhere between panicked and ready to storm a heavily fortified enemy base. He's in front of her before she can say a word.

"Are you alright?" he ask, eyes dark with intensity as his fingers reach forward and skim over her arms and ribs. "I got of the plane and I got this alert from Tower security that there had been some sort of an attack with a broken window and a demented bat that wasn't showing up on the security tape. They said that you and Bucky and another girl-"

"Hey," Cassie interrupts in what she hopes is a soothing voice. "Hey look at me." She covers Steve's hands with her own, pressing one against her waist and drawing the other up to her cheek. "I'm fine okay? There was a problem with a giant bat but it's dead now. My ribs got bruised but they aren't anymore." To emphasize her point she shifts the hand at her waist up so that Steve's fingers can flatten and spread over her now undamaged ribcage. His eyelids flutter closed as he notices the lack of damage below his fingers and Cassie smiles up at him. "Kiss me hello," she says softly. "You've been gone and I missed you."

Her words bring a light flush of pink to Steve's face but he leans down without opening his eyes and Cassie shuts her own as she leans up to meet him. The kiss is warmth and comfort and Cassie hitches herself higher and closer to him by sliding her arms up around his neck and pushing up on to her toes. But Steve's body is still full of tension and Cassie is determined to dispel it so she purposefully deepens the kiss and slides her fingers in to his hair until the rigidity in his neck bleeds away. Steve's breath hitches somewhere in the back of his throat and Cassie actually feels it against her lips. Then Steve has pulled away just far enough to pepper feathery kisses over her cheeks, nose and forehead, gripping her tightly against him. "You're okay," he finally breathes out in to the crook of her neck.

"Yeah," Cassie confirms. "And so is my friend Rachel. She's asleep in our guest room for the night."

Steve nods and pulls away a little, rubbing one hand over his face. Now that she can look at him more carefully Cassie can see that he's still in the black stealth version of his field uniform. Clearly he neglected to get changed in his hurry to get here- to get to her. "I should meet her before she leaves."

Cassie nods back at him. "I'm waking her up at six tomorrow. We can all do breakfast tomorrow. You, me, Rachel," she stops and swallows. "And Bucky."

Steve stops and swallows heavily, his expression shifting in to one of apprehension. "He's really here," Steve breathes. "Here and awake and... him."

"He really is," Cassie confirms. "He's asleep now and he's really confused. Mentally he's going to need a _lot_ of time, and the kind of help I can't give him so I'm going to take some time and find him a good therapist who can be vetted by Fury's people, but he is here."

In the next moment Steve is hugging her so tightly that Cassie's feet fully and actually part company with the ground. She returns the hug and waits for a moment to see if Steve will put her back down but he doesn't. He simply stands there holding her as close as he can with his face buried against her collar bone below the edge of the messy blonde bun of her hair.

For a few long moments Cassie just lets him. This is comfort for the both of them and that's not something she thinks she will ever be able to deny. She tucks her own head and rest her cheek against the top of his and they stay there just feeling each other breath.

Finally Cassie gives his shoulder a light pat and Steve accepts the indicator for what it is and sets her back on the ground. "Come on," Cassie says, looping the fingers of both of her hands through both of his and pulling him backwards with her to the door of the apartment. He comes easily, eyes fixed on her face.

"There's a whole life waiting for us inside."

 **A/N: So there you guys are. I finally got the casts off of both of my wrists and have full movement again so I decided to celebrate by writing and finishing this chapter. Anyway I hope you guys like it! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year a little bit late. This is my first posting of 2018! Anyway as always I am open to suggestions! What did you guys think of Rachel's entrance and Bucky's interactions with Cassie? I know they might need some fine-tuning. Read and Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxoxoxoxo**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: While I admit that would be awesome if I owned any of this enough to make money off of it, my life is not that cool. The only thing I really own in this situation is Cassie and the computer I'm using to write the story. That said, Cassie is mine and I would be upset if anyone borrowed her without asking. Everything else belongs to Marvel Comics and Rick Riordan. Neither of those people should sue me. It would not be worth the time.**

The breakfast that follows the morning after Steve arrives home from his mission isn't the most awkward meal Cassie has ever eaten. No, the honor for that particular meal involves waking up after a night spent sleeping on a picnic bench and consisted of juice pouches and granola bars. Plus a poodle named Gladiola. That Cassie had been forced to greet formally. In exchange for reward money so that she and her friends could take a train to hell to track down a stolen lightning bolt.

So yeah that wins the award for most awkward ever breakfast in Cassie's memory. Unfortunately this breakfast probably wins the award for most tense and silent breakfast she's ever eaten. It also necessitates the consumption of more food in a single meal than she's seen in a very long time with Steve and Bucky both eating.

By the time they've plowed through all of their food in awkward mumbles, forced polite small talk, and semi-protracted silences Cassie has had enough. She clears her plate and indicates for Rachel to stand. Rachel follows her cue and pops up to her feet with a bounce that sends the red frizz of her hair out around her head like fire.

"Well alright then here's what's going to happen now," Cassie declares as Rachel crosses the kitchen to her. Bucky and Steve both look over at her. Steve is frowning in confusion and Bucky mostly just looks impassive. "I'm going to go grab coffee with Rachel and walk her back to her place. Then I'm going to walk back here very, very slowly and by the time I'm back you two will have started using verbal exchanges involving more than monosyllabic grunts. Rachel, back me up."

Rachel, gods bless her, jumps right in to the ring like a trained matador. "Right," she begins, laying her hands on her hips and leveling Bucky with a hard look. "You survived seventy years of HYDRA torture and ended up right back here in New York with the same best friend you left it with right before World War II. I'm an oracle which means that fate and prophecy? Yeah I support it. So that means something." Then she turns and fixes her eyes on Steve. "You once literally took on an army single handedly to save the guy sitting across the table from you and you just spent actual months trying to find him again. Now he's sitting across the table from you."

With that Rachel makes for the door, clearly deciding that that is as good a way to exit as any. Cassie happens to think that she has the right idea so she crosses the kitchen once more, drops a kiss on Steve's cheek, whispers "you'll thank me later" in to his ear, and hurries out the door Rachel's now holding open for her.

They follow the plan that Cassie had outlined in the kitchen and walk through the streets of the city together, talking as they go. The early morning is one of Cassie's favorite times to be in New York City. The sun is just starting to really shine and most people are just waking up and starting their days so the streets aren't crowded and busy yet.

The two of them stop for the required caffeine buzz for them both to survive their mornings and keep on walking back to Rachel's apartment so that she has time to get changed before the rest of her day has to really get started. As they part ways they make plans to meet up again at some point. Even if they don't see each other for a few weeks they're both invited to Percy's Birthday dinner in August.

Then Cassie takes her time wandering back home, making random looping patterns throughout the city in the hopes of giving Steve and Bucky the time they need to try to get started on talking things out. Or punching them out. To do whatever it is those two guys do to handle their issues. Hopefully it won't involve too much property damage. She's already been partially responsible for breaking one of Tony's probably very expensive windows this week. She says partially because it really can't be considered her fault that she and Rachel were attacked by a giant bat monster.

For once in recent memory Cassie actually has some time to kill and frankly she considers it a luxury. She wanders through one of the trails in Central Park and gives the nymphs she encounters a wave or a smile as she passes. At one point she actually passes the maple tree made out of the titan Hyperion and Cassie gives it a fond tap on the trunk. The spirit of the titan may have been reborn in Tartarus but the tree still brings up memories of fighting beside her friends and actually managing to win.

About six blocks from the Tower she encounters a farmers market and does some organic grocery shopping. It's all overpriced, but the warmth of the morning is starting to heat the freshly made bread and strawberries in their baskets at their stands and the smells are making Cassie think about summers at camp. The strawberries aren't quite as good without the extra magic and care provided by having the god of wine on site, but the one she tries is still delicious.

Basically Cassie stays out and just wonders through the city enjoying living in New York without anyone or anything trying to attack her until she feels like going home. When that feeling makes itself known Cassie turns her feet back towards the Tower and slips inside. The doorman just nods at her as she passes him and Cassie nods back before making her way across the lobby and in to the private elevator reserved for residential use.

When the ding of the elevator doors sliding open sounds Cassie steps out hesitantly and looks cautiously up and down the hallway. There are no obvious signs of destruction visible so it looks like everyone might be safe on the property damage front. Tony won't have any new reasons to hate any of them. Or evict them. Both of those options are bad and best avoided.

As though thinking of the man was a summons (something that is scarily very possible and has been previously experienced with certain beings Cassie has encountered over the course of her existence thus far) Tony Stark appears walking towards her. Quickly Cassie makes a mental note to herself to keep Stark from ever knowing that he's just accomplished something she normally only associates with gods. Cassie already has to deal with godly egos whenever she runs in to a family member, which is thankfully not very often. She doesn't need to have to deal with an ego any bigger than the one Stark already has from anyone she lives in the same building as.

"Doc," he mutters as he passes.

"Tony," Cassie returns evenly.

It's a surprise when Tony freezes and grips her elbow. Cassie's immediate impulse is to twist away and flip him on to the ground but she checks it down in favor of a potential wind change. Thus far they've been existing with an icy wall of silence between them so the fact that he's made the first gesture forwards is... interesting to say the least. She looks at him with raised eyebrows and waits for the words to form.

It takes approximately four seconds. "Do you want to explain why a window in this building got broken and the explanation I got was that a giant bat attacked you in the hallway?"

Cassie sighs and then calmly shakes off Tony's grip. "Fine. You have problems with old business associates of your dad's right? There are people out there in the business world that he pissed off that you have to deal with now because you're his kid?"

Tony's eyes narrow at her like he's wondering where she's going with this, but after a moment he seems to decide to roll with it and nods once. "Yeah. They're assholes. What's your point?" If he's nothing else, he's blunt.

"My point," Cassie enunciates. "Is that if your dad made enemies by being a businessman, what kind of enemies do you think my dad has as a god?" She lets that sink in for a moment before she continues. "But see, my dad is unkillable, and I'm not and those enemies know that. I inherited a full and complete species of enemies and over the last three thousand years all they've done is build up. And no matter what I do they can't ever actually _die._ I kill them and they come back and as far as I know they will keep on coming back again and again until I'm dead."

Tony Stark's expression doesn't change but his face seems paler than it was a moment ago. She gives him a moment but no words come so Cassie shrugs. "Sorry about the window. I'd offer to pay you back but you control my paycheck so there's really no point. If you have to you can deduct it." With that she turns to make her way back down the hall towards her apartment.

"When-" Tony asks from behind her and Cassie turns to look back at him. "When did all of this start," he gestures broadly to encompass everything he isn't sure he's referring to. Cassie's pretty sure he means attacks from killer demonic bats and other monsters.

She can't see any harm in answering the question so Cassie answers it. "The first time I can remember being attacked I was five. Something probably happened before that going by other stories I've heard but I don't know what. Attacks get worse as you get older when your a demigod because you get more powerful. They're worst during the teenaged years when our aura's are strongest. They've petered off over the last five years or so but having me and Rachel in one place must have been a pretty strong signature." She takes a step back the way she'd been going before she had turned as her explanation ends. "Like I said, sorry about the window."

This time Tony doesn't stop her or call her back and Cassie reaches the end of the hall and makes her way to her and Steve's apartment. She sticks her head through the door first when she reaches it and takes a look around to check for damages again. The apartment appears to be about as unscathed as the hallway so she slips the rest of the way inside and unloads the strawberries from the farmer's market in to the refrigerator and cuts a piece of bread to make some toast in place of lunch. It is in no way the healthiest option for food but she's had a basically good day so at the moment she really doesn't care.

Steve and Bucky come through the door ten minutes after she had. They're both wearing gym clothes and Cassie notes that Bucky's must have been borrowed from Steve because they don't quite fit him at the shoulders. He gives Cassie a single nod as he passes, probably heading for a shower. Steve walks up behind her where she's sitting at the kitchen island and presses a kiss against the naked skin of her shoulder. "Hi."

"Hey," Cassie returns, tipping her head up and back to give him an actual kiss in greeting. "Want some toast?" she offers, holding out one of the pieces. "I bought yummy overpriced bread while I was out today. It might be better for us or it might not but I'm choosing to believe it is because otherwise I really can't justify the dollar amount involved."

He smiles down at her. "You're amazing." It's stated simply, like it's a fact and nothing else.

Cassie grins back at him. "Well I try." Steve just leans down to kiss her again. His hand comes up to cradle her cheek and Cassie melts in to it for several moments before pulling back gently to look up at him. "So you two talked?" she asks, indicating her head towards the door Bucky went through.

With her words Steve's expression turns thoughtful and he gives her a slow nod. "We started to."

He moves away to make his own toes and Cassie swivels in her chair to watch him as he does. As he works Cassie tells him about her conversation with Tony in the hallway and they talk through some of the possible implications as he eats. Eventually he leaves to shower too and Bucky returns to the living room, picking up a thick book Cassie wouldn't try to read on a dare and vanishing behind it. Cassie gets her work done and goes about her day.

The days that follow involve a series of gradual changes that once put together actually start to look like development. At any rate they're moving forwards somehow, and forwards is always better than reverse. Unless you were talking literally instead of just using the metaphor Cassie's going for and forwards involved a literal brick wall or freakish beast from the heart of Tartarus. In that case reverse works best.

Cassie continues to live her life as she always has and makes sure she's keeps a close watch on how the rest of the world is taking shape around her. She goes to work as always and manages to translate most of the paper files in her office on to the computer and in to audio text reader files for quick review. Occasionally an agent or two comes in with basic injuries, but it's nothing she needs her magic for and she handles them with purely mortal medicine, the kind that's been around since the first weirdo cut in to someone to figure out how to fix them.

When she's not working Cassie fills her time with training using the super reinforced equipment the gym keeps stalked for Thor and Steve to use and every few nights she goes out and runs a patrol. She doesn't talk about where she's going or what happens on those nights and to her immense relief Steve doesn't ask for details apart from a sleepily asked "Are you okay?" each time she crawls back in to bed beside him during the small hours of the morning when the sky is half way between black and a slightly lightened grey. Each time she assures him that she is, plants a kiss on his cheek or forehead or nose or lips, and then curls in to his side and falls asleep with her head on his chest and one of his arms wrapped around her.

One of her highlights is managing to meet Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis. In part because the introduction is made by Thor who does it in such a booming voice she's pretty sure that people down in the lobby could have heard him. Darcy Lewis is a fast talker and relentless organizer who completely refuses to take anything from anyone and taks great pride in the fact that she once managed to taser the Norse god of thunder. In response Cassie tells a story involving a blue plastic hairbrush and a collision with the newly reborn titan Lord of Time. Further introductions to Rachel will need to be made.

Jane Foster is absolutely brilliant and will probably work out the exact mechanics of the universe before anyone else. She's already working on it one complex equation at a time and Cassie's fairly sure she might actually already be about half way there. She can't be sure though because approximately ten minutes in to any conversation they have together Cassie completely looses track of what Jane is actually saying. Cassie's a fairly smart girl having survived college and medical school, but Jane leaves her behind in a cloud of dust the same way Tony and even Annabeth do.

The three of them set up lunch dates every week or so and sometimes they're even joined by Natasha or Pepper. The former has been in and out of Cassie's life more and more often lately because she spars with Bucky and pokes at Steve for varying reactions. The ladder seems to relish in popping in on Cassie when she has the time with coffee or scones and does it especially when Tony is within hearing range. Cassie gets the feeling that the older woman is partly using these exchanges to make a point to her significant other and partly doing it to be nice.

Bucky himself is a work in progress and initially Cassie spends a lot of time trying to find a psychologist specializing in PTSD and mental trauma in soldiers who might manage to get an actual security clearance. Eventually she finds one after several separate and stressful conference calls with Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Fury holds things up more than Hill does and Cassie thinks getting him to employ anyone must take an actual eternity. SHIELD's H.R department must have been made up of saints. Or have been very well paid. Cassie is willing to believe either option.

In the end they find a highly qualified doctor known in intelligence circles only as Doctor Grey. He's an elderly man who reminds Cassie a bit of Chiron's human form as Mr. Brunner, but that impression is probably overly intensified by the fact that Cassie only ever sees the man while he's sitting down. Clint Barton breaks his self-imposed silence about personal experiences and throws in that this is the man he talked to after Loki got in to his head during the invasion. It's a good recommendation and Cassie takes it for the gold it's worth.

Slowly, through some combination of monumental effort Bucky seems to improve. He speaks a bit more and turns out to be able to do so in about seven different languages. Often Steve and Bucky go running and train together to work through things. Cassie joins them for a run once and vows never to do it again when they end up in the middle of nowhere Connecticut. Her facial expression when that happens actually makes Bucky laugh. It's a half broken, surprised, underused sound and he looks genuinely surprised to hear it come out of his mouth.

The beaming smile it brings to Steve's face is almost worth the long trip back home. To make things more fun for her and to add an element of challenge Cassie refuses to walk and instead makes Steve give her a piggy back ride as they jog back. Steve cooperates without comment and his smile doesn't shrink a single fraction. It's at that moment that Cassie starts wondering if she should have aimed higher with her requests. Voicing this thought out loud gets both of them to laugh together in what might be the first time for the last sixty years.

That's not to say that things are easy because they aren't. Bucky has nightmares each and every night and the seven languages he speaks are less impressive when he's babbling in them in broken fear and pain through the wall at two in the morning. He jumps at small noises and refuses to sit or stand anywhere that he can't see the door from. It takes a while for him to stop actively insuring that anyone in a room with him is armed in case he snaps. Cassie's sure he still checks, but he's learned to do it more subtly.

A few weeks after finding him, he moves in to an empty apartment across the hall. Steve worries that Bucky is retreating in to himself and pulling away from the rest of the world to stew in the past. Cassie is half way between thinking that that might be true and thinking that it might be good for Barnes to start establishing himself in his own space. What she tells Steve is that no matter what he's gone through, Bucky is still a fully grown adult with the mental capabilities to make his own choices. He's got access to the right kind of help and the best support system they can give him. If Barnes starts skipping meals, missing appointments with his psychiatrist, or refusing to leave his apartment then they can start worrying. She also reminds Steve that Bucky will never get back the capability to live his own life unless he starts for himself when he feels ready.

Privately Cassie just prays to all the gods she can think of and some of the ones she can't remember that she's telling the truth and not lying through her teeth for her boyfriend's comfort. Psychology really is so much more complicated than dealing with physical damage. If there's one thing Cassie is learning from this whole experience it's that she made a good choice when she picked her concentration back in medical school.

Anyway, through whatever combination of luck, hope, and blind prayer they make it to August without anything going majorly wrong. Cassie even manages to keep her schedule completely clear around the summer solstice and in a stroke of miraculousness Cassie hadn't thought the universe or the Fates would be capable of the world doesn't even threaten to end in anyway she has to try to handle. There's a weird gas explosion across the river, but a quick call to the Kane siblings assures her that it's an Egyptian thing not a Greco-Roman issue.

On the Friday evening two days before Percy's twenty-fifth birthday Cassie is making a pot of tea in the kitchen talking to Sally Jackson on the phone about weather she should bring anything to the birthday dinner when Steve walks in from a late day trip to the gym. "Hey," he greets as he comes through the door. Cassie greets him with a smile and gestures at the phone clenched between her cheek and her shoulder to indicate that she can't talk at the moment.

"Who was that?" Sally asks with a very particular tone in her voice. Even through the phone without being able to see her face Cassie can picture her exact expression. This moment will either be a start of something good or be painfully awkward.

"Oh that was my boyfriend Steve," Cassie says as casually as she can. "He just got home. I must have told you about him..." She lets the rest of her words trail off. Everything she needed to say has already been said.

The enthusiastic muffled shriek from the other end of the line tells Cassie that no in fact, the news of her relationship status has not actually reached Sally's ears. She supposes that even if Rachel or Reyna or one of her other friends who knows about Steve had told Percy, Percy probably wouldn't have said anything to his mom about it. That child wasn't the most socially aware bulb in the gossip chandelier.

Steve's head goes up as he looks over at her with one eyebrow quirked in concern. Apparently he heard the shriek through the phone speakers from feet away muffled or not. Cassie gives him an expression she hopes is reassuring and tries not to wince when she hears Sally's excited voice calling out the news to her husband Paul. "So anyway like I was saying should I bring a salad or some chips or something?"

Sally scoffs and the sound is a rush of static distortion in her ear. "Oh no young lady. There is no way that you are getting away with that hit and run of information _that_ easily. I demand detailed explanations and the right to cast judgement as only someone with maternal instincts can."

Cassie fights back a groan and drops her head back, pinching the bridge of her nose as she pours her now ready cup of tea. She pours one for Steve too and holds it out as he approaches. "Soooooo..." Cassie says dragging out the vowel sound. "I should bring wine or-"

"Oh Sweetheart," Sally interrupts. "The only thing you're bringing to this party is your boyfriend. Maybe a small appetizer if you're feeling peckish."

With a sigh Cassie sees that this war is lost and mutters, "I'll ask him." She tucks her phone securely against her shoulder and turns to face Steve. "So my friend is turning twenty-five on Sunday and I've been planning on going to the dinner. His mom just invited you along with me."

Steve lowers the tea he's just taken a sip of and his eyebrows inch up a little towards his hairline. "And by 'invited' you mean that my attendance has now been made mandatory," he states.

This time Cassie doesn't hide her grimace. "Yeah basically." She watches his face carefully as she says it for any sign that he might be about to turn and dive out the window. Okay that might be an exaggeration but given the stories she's heard about his jumping through glass elevators and sky diving without parachutes it's not impossible. However, Steve seems to be completely calm. He shrugs and sips his tea again. "What kind of wine?"

So that's how Steve Rogers AKA Captain America ends up going with Cassie to Percy Jackson the one and only Son of Poseidon's twenty-fifth birthday party. Which is a sentence she never plans to say out loud. It makes little enough sense when confined to her own brain.

They take a cab to get to the Blowfish-Jackson apartment. The cabbie either doesn't speak English, doesn't recognize Steve, or doesn't care who he is. Either way they tip him a little extra when he drops them off for conducting the ride quickly and in relative silence.

Cassie's carrying a bag stuffed with blue tissue paper with Percy's present in it. She's never had much skill in the area of gist wrapping so decorative bags were infinitely safer. Steve is in charge of the bottle of wine they'd managed to purchase with a little bit of recommendation help from Natasha. Apparently the super assassin had noticed Steve acting jumpy and cornered him until he'd admitted not knowing what to bring. After explaining the situation Natasha had delivered a list of recommendations and dragged Steve to a nearby liquor store.

This story had been relayed to Cassie second hand by a subtly smirking Clint Barton who had gone along to bear witness to the whole episode. He had even managed to produce a picture taken with a button camera of Steve's look of utter confusion. Apparently he had thought that photographic proof was required if he ever wanted to share the story with Sam Wilson. Cassie had simply grinned and asked for a copy which Barton had emailed without delay.

Now as they stood in the street outside of the apartment Cassie simply takes Steve's free hand in hers and begins to lead him along the sidewalk to the door. He squeezes a little harder than he might normally and Cassie returns the pressure. Steve might have nerves of steel when it came to taking on HYDRA, but she gets the feeling the prospect of meeting a large group of her friends might be making him a little nervous.

She buzzes the intercom and there is an immediate beep signaling that she can come in. The apartment where Sally, Paul, and Percy's little sister Rosie live is on the third floor and as they climb Cassie gives Steve a further breakdown of the people he's about to meet. Maybe if he gets a bigger view of the tactical profile involved in the situation he'll feel a bit more comfortable.

"It's Percy who's birthday we're going to," she explains. "Sally and Paul are his mom and Stepdad. He's also got a little sister named Rosie. Annabeth is his girlfriend and I've known her since I was eight. She's one of my very best friends. Rachel will be there too, you've already met her. Jason, Thalia, Nico, and Hazel are- well I guess they're kind of Percy's cousins. Jason and Thalia are full siblings and I met Thalia when I met Annabeth. Nico and Hazel are half siblings and I think you'll get along with them but I'll let them say why."

She smiles at him over her shoulder as they climb. "Frank and Hazel are a couple and Frank is seriously clumsy but incredibly sweet. If you see any precious metals around Hazel do _not_ pick them up. Nico dates my brother Will, but Will is doing a summer session at school so you won't meet him tonight."

Steve's lack of reaction to that statement besides a nod is another reason Cassie is dating this man. "There's another couple isn't there?" he checks. "I thought you mentioned one earlier."

Cassie nods. "There are two actually. Piper and Jason are a couple. They're only dating for now but I think there's probably an engagement coming soon. The other couple is Leo and Calypso. Calypso is a seriously awesome cook and if you have any gardening questions you should definitely ask her. Leo is hyperactive on a major scale and could probably invent anything you want, but if he says duck you should _immediately_ hit the ground."

Steve nods again with a slight frown, apparently sorting and storing all of the information she's just dished out to him. They reach the door and Cassie looks at him with a barley raised eyebrow. "Ready to go in?"

"Of course," Steve raises a hand and knocks. He seems to be doing his best to knock very gently. After dating him for this long Cassie knows that when he doesn't think about it his strength can cause issues. Like occasionally damaging the dry wall or accidentally breaking down a door.

A voice from inside calls, "Come in! It should be open!" and with one last squeeze to Steve's hand Cassie pushes the door open and walks through it.

The apartment looks much the same as always, with the exception of the number of people already crowded inside. She can see Jason occupying a spot on the sofa crammed between Hazel, who is twisting her neck around to try to draw Nico in to conversation, and Thalia who leans over the side of the sofa to talk to Annabeth where she perches on Percy's lap in the next armchair over. Piper is sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table reclining against Jason's knees talking to Rachel who's seated on the ground across from her and happily sketching on a napkin.

Frank is seated in a rocking chair that looks much to small for him and seemed to be taking a turn to entertain Rosie who is forcing him to participate in a complicated stuffed animal tee party scenario. Leo was sprawled on the ground surrounded by what looks like the inner workings of the apartment sound system. By angling her head a little Cassie can see that the door out to the fire escape is open and Calypso is attending to the flower boxes with loving care and Sally is talking to her from where she is frosting a large blue cake. Paul is standing beside her checking periodically on a large dish of lasagna cooking in the oven.

"Hey everyone," Cassie calls as she steps in to the room. "We're here." In moments she's being greeted and people are moving at her in a wave. She just manages to pass the gift bag to Steve before Annabeth hits her, knocking all of the breath out of her with the strength of her hug. Moments later she's being passed over to Piper who hugs her tight as Jason calls a greeting and pats her on the shoulder. Thalia punches her on the arm which for her is a warm greeting and Hazel waves shyly from her spot on the sofa. Nico nods and seems to be trying to form his facial features in to a smile. Leo tries to jump to his feet and promptly trips. Rachel just makes a face at her.

Finally as everyone talks to her about everything they can think of Cassie turns around to find herself enveloped in Percy's hug. Percy is good at hugs and always has been. "Happy Birthday Percy," Cassie tells him happily as Percy sets her back. She looks around for the present she brought and finds Steve passing it to her over Piper's excitedly bouncing shoulder. "Thank you," she says, handing it over to Percy. "Your present."

Percy's expression brightened like a little kid's would have and took the bag eagerly. "Thanks! Come in and get comfy. And mom said you were brining..." At that moment he seemed to visually process Steve standing behind her. For all that Percy was sometimes a goofball, he was still a trained hero and he takes the time to look Steve over. For the moment though, Steve looks fairly harmless. Apart from being ridiculously good looking (in Cassie's opinion) he's dressed in jeans and a clean white tee shirt and looks like a normal guy.

This is apparently the same conclusion that Percy arrives at because he grins in a friendly way and holds his hand out to shake. "I'm Percy. Nice to meet you."

Steve takes the offered hand and smiles in a way that's formally polite and a little bit uncomfortable looking. Cassie crosses her fingers behind her back that they both manage to power through the awkwardness of the moment. "Steve," he introduces himself. "Happy Birthday."

"Thanks man," Percy says. He squints up at Steve who is a little taller than he is. "You know you look kind of familiar."

Cassie opens her mouth, ready to give the abbreviated version of the story of Steve being Captain America. She thought about it some on the way to the party and had decided that the best way to go about the job would be to quickly separate Steve the person from his job as Captain America. As it turns out she doesn't need to use this explanation just yet.

Annabeth pops up behind Percy and grabs his hand. "Come on Seaweed Brain," she says with the tone of affectionate exasperation she's had perfected for Percy's benefit only since age twelve. "Frank's run out of ideas to entertain Rosie. Come pick who gets to entertain the six year old next." Percy shrugs and turns away. Annabeth stuck around for a moment to introduce herself. "I'm Annabeth," she says introducing herself to Steve. Steve nods and introduces himself back.

Annabeth brushes a pile of her blonde hair back off her shoulder and sighs before turning to Cassie. "We're talking later," she declares. Then she wraps Cassie in one more quick hug and speaks to Steve over her head. "Don't hurt her," she orders over Cassie's exasperated sigh. "I mean it," Annabeth continued, letting her go. "I don't care who you work with. I'll make a plan and I'll win."

Steve gives a small smile and ducks his head a little. "Understood," he tells Annabeth, voice serious.

For a moment Annabeth holds his gaze appraisingly and then nods and spins on her heel to go after Percy. The other introductions go more smoothly after that, the group evidently taking Annabeth's seal of approval on Cassie's dating choices as good enough. The fact that Cassie's dating choice happens to be Captain America might help. This also happens to be a fact that no one in the room actually manages to miss. However, one of the nice things about having super-powered friends was that they didn't tend to react too much to your super-powered boyfriend and vice versa.

Thalia narrows her electrically blue eyes at him in assessment. "So Annabeth already not so subtly threatened you?" she verifies.

"She did," Steve agrees as Cassie drags Percy's desk chair out of his room so that they can sit. Steve tries to gesture that she should take the spot in some kind of bid at 1940s manners but Cassie rolls her eyes at him until he sits. Then Cassie perches unceremoniously on his lap. From her new position she can feel Steve sigh as the breath puffs out over the back of her neck. Then he seems to give up on whatever internal debate he was having and wraps an arm loosely around her waist. It's an arrangement that Cassie thinks would probably allow her to survive a high speed train crash.

Thalia watches the entire exchange and then nods. "Well good then." That's all she does on the subject verbally but Cassie notes that several very obvious sparks of blue electricity are being permitted to pop and flicker along her fingers and spiky punk rings. It's nice to know that some people never change. Given the blessing of Artemis, Cassie supposes that Thalia never will.

"That was Thalia," Cassie says quietly, leaning back so that she can murmur in to his ear.

Frank's introduction is a little more surprising given that it involves him being so shocked by Steve's presence that he turns in to a large hissing llama and needs five minutes to calm down and turn back in to a human being. Hazel manages to get Frank talked back around in to being himself and Steve apologetically lifts the desk chair, and then Cassie upright from where he'd dumped both on to the floor in the panic caused by the sudden appearance of a shocked looking llama where a tall Canadian-Asian guy used to be.

Leo's greeting literally heats up the proceedings when his hair catches fire when he recognizes who Steve is. Percy extinguishes the fire before anyone can get worked up in to a fully fledged freak out by lifting the contents of Sally Jackson's water glass from across the room and dumping it on Leo's head. Sally's only reaction is to sigh in a long suffering kind of way and requests that they dry the floor as Paul good naturally refills the glass at the sink.

Jason relies very calmly on the traditional handshake and calmly and politely draws him in to a discussion of military tactics during World War II. Gods bless Jason's diplomatic political senses. Actually as the child of Jupiter it was possible that that was what had literally happened. Whatever, Cassie appreciated it because out of any topic in the world, Steve is fully knowledgeable on this one. It's also a topic that Annabeth can get in on and Frank, red-faced but human again, contributes a little as well.

This gives Cassie time to talk with Calypso and Leo about the auto garage and cafe they've opened. The fact that the two of them are happy and have managed to make real a dream they hatched up together nearly ten years ago is something that makes Cassie infinitely happy and fills her with a renewed sense of optimism. Piper is taking a turn with Rosie and entertaining her by braiding what looks like bluejay feathers in to the little girl's hair, calmly matching the hairstyle she herself is sporting in deference to Percy's favorite color on his birthday. Rachel helps with the entertaining by sketching out a comic strip involving Rosie's stuffed animals.

Nico and Hazel hang back from the various conversations occurring for a little while, quietly assessing before they jump in. In that respect the two were very much siblings. Of course the inclination to hang back came from different places. Nico was suspicious and Hazel was simply shy, but either way they both tended to wait before speaking. "Hold on," Nico says, breaking his silence as Steve launches in to a story about a mission the Howling Commandos undertook shortly after being formed. "I remember that happening." Nico turns to Hazel. "Do you?"

Hazel nods, golden eyes wide with confusion. "I think so. It was in the newspapers. It was one of the only papers my Ma bought during the war. Everything else she said we could learn from people talking too loudly when they thought no one could hear. I remember because she used one of my coins to do it." With that her expression turns sad and Cassie knows why. If one of Hazel's magical treasures was given to the newspaper seller, chances were that that seller had shown up dead within the week.

Now its Steve's turn to look confused again. "How is that possible?" he asks, brow furrowed. Cassie stamps down hard on the urge to reach up and purposefully smooth the wrinkles away with her thumb. "You're what, twenty-one? How can you remember something from 1944?"

His words bring a crooked smile to Nico's face, and crooked is the best adjective for it. After all, Nico's father wasn't called 'the Crooked One' for no reason. "I had just turned eight in March of 1944. My sister Bianca was ten. My mother took us to see some of the newsreels. We were staying in New York at the time." Nico glances over to Hazel. "You would have been about twelve right?"

Hazel nods. "It was one of the last major news reports we got before my ma packed us up to move to Alaska."

It's then that Cassie decides to take pity on Steve. The poor guy is so confused by what he's just heard that he can't even seem to formulate the right kind of questions to ask to clear it up. "Nico and Hazel both got kind of pulled out of time for a while. Hazel died in early 1945 fighting Gaea the goddess of Earth and came back to fight that same goddess about eight years ago when Death got a little shaky. Nico was a little less dramatic. His dad dropped him off at a nice hotel in Vegas for sixty years."

"Lotus Hotel and Casino," Nico says in a sing song kind of voice. "My sister and I thought we were only in that place for a month. We came out sixty years later and couldn't tell how much time had passed. We were both young enough that we couldn't really tell that the rest of the world was different."

Steve blinks twice as he processes the fact that the two people sitting in the apartment talking to him had actually been born and originally grown up in a time period not so different from his own. Then he turns to Cassie with a look of dawning comprehension. "This is what you meant earlier wasn't it?" he asks quietly. "When you said I'd have something in common with them." Cassie nods in confirmation and gives Steve another moment to organize all of his thoughts. "How did all of this happen?" he asks.

At his question all of the demigods in the room exchange long looks.

"It's kind of a long story," Rachel starts. "I guess you could say it began with Cassie's dad."

Cassie takes up the story there because it seems like this moment applies to her. "Right. See, I think you already know that my dad is a god of prophecy. Well, my dad uses an oracle to relay those prophecies to mortals. The oracle is this old spirit that takes a human host."

It's then that Rachel gets to her feet and takes a dramatic bow. "Which for the last eight years or so has been yours truly. I took over the job from a hippy mummy from the sixties, but we'll get back to that later. Most of the time I'm normal except for being able to see through the mist, but sometimes the future kind of mugs me, or takes over my dreams and I spew out a prophecy. Sometimes in couplets which I could frankly live without."

"Anyway," Cassie says, taking over the telling of the story again as Rachel sits back down. "Back at the very end of World War II Rachel's predecessor made a prophecy about a child of one of the three eldest gods. Those gods being Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. While the mortal war was going on the children of those gods had been fighting a war all their own. Think of the children of Zeus as the Americans, Poseidon's kids as the British, and the children of Hades like the Germans. Anyway, the prophecy basically said that this kid would turn sixteen, and then make a choice that would either save or destroy Olympus."

Percy rolls his eyes at mention of the prophecy. "And that prophecy was a complete and total pain in the ass to deal with." He elaborates from there after glancing at Thalia and Nico who are both making faces like they'd just sucked on lemons. "The gods decided to try to avoid the prophecy instead of just dealing with it so they made this deal not to have any more kids which pissed Hades off so he hid Nico and his sister Bianca in the hotel of immortality after Zeus straight up tried to murder them. Then he cursed the oracle before Rachel which is why we were dealing with a zombie fortune teller for a while."

"Right," Thalia added in. "And that deal to not have more kids worked out super fantastically for like forty years until Zeus met my mom and they had me. Then when I was eight Zeus showed back up as Jupiter and they had Jason."

"Then I got sacrificed as a tribute to Juno so she wouldn't go smite happy," Jason remembered. "Yeah. Not fun." Then Jason clammed back up and sat back, rubbing at the legion tattoo burned in to the skin of his arm.

Thalia at that point took one of her little brother's hands and Piper took a break from braiding Rosie's hair to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek. "Somewhere in there you ate a stapler too," she reminds him. "It gave you that really cute scar on your lip. I love that story."

Thalia continued the story from there. "After Jason went missing I ran away from home," she relayed. "My mom was never really that stable and her letting Jason go was the last straw. I found Annabeth and Cassie while I was running," she swallows deeply. "Luke too. Our friend Grover found us while we were running and brought us to camp. But by the time we got there I was tired of running all the time. I was hurt and it was just too much. Hades had been chasing us the whole time because my existence was kind of a major pissing off factor for him. I staged a last stand to buy the others time to get safe. My father took pity on me right before I died and turned me in to a pine tree."

"Which Percy and I turned back in to Thalia six years later," Annabeth chipped in. "Only she'd been aging slower in between and was only fifteen when she came out of it."

"At which point I totally ditched the prophecy and became a badass ultimate feminist eternal huntress for Cassie's aunt the Lady Artemis goddess of the Hunt. I figured Percy could handle ending or saving the world and I tossed the prophecy over to him like a hot potato." Then she gives Rachel a high five and forces Frank to give her one too because the poor guy is close enough to do it.

Percy makes a face at all three of them from where he's sitting. "Yeah. Thanks so much for that. I really appreciate it. You still owe me a better sixteenth birthday present. That one sucked major Grace."

Thalia waved the words off. "The world didn't end did it? Besides, my present this year rocks." At that Percy perks up and cranes his neck to look at the accumulated pile of gifts to see the large box with the attached card covered in Thalia's spiky handwriting.

"Long story short," Hazel broke in. "Hades, or Pluto to me really since technically Pluto is my dad and Hades is Nico's, was the only one to actually keep his promise about not having any more children-"

"In a shocking twist," Nico muttered darkly.

Hazel glared at her brother before continuing. "- because Poseidon and Sally had Percy. But Hades decided to keep Nico and Bianca safe to see if they would be the hero in the prophecy. It didn't really work out that way since Nico was too young when the war happened. And Biana... wasn't there anymore. Then Pluto let me come back to life when the borders got fuzzy. But Nico and I were both born before the deal was made so technically we didn't break any promises."

"A promise which no longer exists," Annabeth points out. "Percy took care of that one when we won the titan war and he prophecy was over. Though no other kids of the Big Three have shown up having been born since then so maybe they're holding off anyway."

Percy quietly raised his hand. "I'm okay with that actually. Tyson and Rosie are all the siblings I need." Thalia and Jason, and Nico and Hazel each exchanged looks with their siblings and seemed to shudder or nod in agreement.

Annabeth just shrugs. "Hey, I've got seven siblings back in cabin six. It's not so bad. As long as you don't concentrate too hard on the fact that you all share a godly parent, and being close in age. Then there's my half-brothers in San Francisco with my dad and stepmom."

"You think you've got it bad," Piper said with a grimace. "My mom is freaking Aphrodite. I have thirteen siblings at camp. The oldest one is twenty four and the youngest is eight. Work that math and share in my horrified disgust for a few minutes."

Cassie isn't exactly short on godly half-siblings either and shudders to get rid of those considerations. Steve seems to feel the shake because he rubs an absent hand up and down her spine. He doesn't look quite as confused as before but his brow is still furrowed and his eyes seems to be focusing on something in the middle distance as he thinks through the tattered patchwork pieces of the story he has just been told. As she watches the furrows smooth as he stitches things together with he information she's given him already and he seems to relax in to a new sense of understanding.

As his face clears Steve comes back to the room as the others fall in to chatting again, going over various details of their quests and stories. When he notices Cassie watching him with only slightly concealed apprehension he gives her a smile that's so warm and gentle Cassie feels as comforted as if she had just slipped in to a warm bath, or stepped in to a pool of sunshine. Then he tips his head down to kiss her, quick and light before Percy's mother calls to them all that dinner is ready.

 **A/N: So there we have it guys. I wanted to try to get this out fairly close to the last post since school is picking back up again and I am preparing myself to be buried in an avalanche of homework and thus have no free time. It could have been longer but this seemed like a natural stopping point. What did you guys think of how I introduced everyone? I can always go back in and edit if anyone has helpful suggestions for improvements. I thought the best way to go would be to just throw Steve in headfirst and have the other characters do an information** **dump. I also wanted to start warming Tony back up again for AoU which I'll be working towards in the next chapter. Anyway, tell me what you thought! Review for me! oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I own literally nothing aside from Cassie. Everything else that any of you can recognize from absolutely anywhere else belongs to a different person who is not me. Those people (whoever they may be) should not sue me because I have no money and am not getting paid. However, if anyone would like to hire me and pay me money shouldn't be shy about reaching out and letting me know.**

 ***Nervous laughter***

 **But no, seriously.**

After Percy's birthday dinner Cassie feels like her relationship with Steve changes. The change is subtle, and she doesn't think its bad but it does happen and they don't talk about it. There isn't any kind of big dramatic signal, it just feels like things have lifted, shifted over, and settled on slightly different ground, like a wave on the shore as the tide comes in.

It takes Cassie a little while to figure out what this shift actually is, and once she's got it figured out it's another week or two before the feeling settles with her comfortably. The relationship is somehow more intimate now. After meeting her friends, her family really, Steve knows her better than he did before. He's got access to a part of her life that she hadn't exactly kept blocked off before, but hadn't really shared openly either.

Cassie decides that someday she might just have to figure out how to know Steve that way too. Unfortunately that's a little easier said than done owing to the fact that Steve's best friend has severe memory impairment issues and everyone else he grew up with is dead. Gods that's a horrible way to think about things. It's a thought that makes Cassie cringe at herself and automatically mentally retreat to rethink.

Still, life goes on and Cassie dives a little deeper in to her job as the Avengers team gains a little more traction and Steve's own job becomes more demanding and time consuming again. The thing is, once Cassie has her office set up and all of the paperwork figured out their often isn't much to do. Being an emergency doctor for a superhero team sounds exciting but the work is very much feast or famine. There are only serious injuries for her to deal with when something potentially world ending happens. Thankfully those world ending events don't actually happen every other week.

Instead of just sitting around twiddling her thumbs (a pastime that no demigod Cassie's ever met has ever been good at or able to stick with for longer than about ten minutes at once) Cassie starts looking for a project to tackle. The suggestion Stark made when he recruited her of curing cancer is plenty noble but not actually an area of study Cassie can make much progress in. She'll leave cancer to the oncologists.

The answer in her quest for a project comes to her one evening after watching Steve, Bucky, Thor, and Dr. Banner clear about six plates a piece after returning from a mission in Bolivia. Bucky hadn't even been on the mission for Zeus' sake, he was just that hungry. Thor was a god and he was eating, and Banner apparently burned calories like no tomorrow as the Hulk.

Apparently their in mission food supply had run low and it had turned in to a fairly serious problem. That's all Cassie has to hear before deciding that what she ought to do next is figure out a fix for the issue. The most obvious solution is to design some kind of protein bar, but working out the right substances to form in to a portable bar that also contain the right calorie to protein ratio is a tricky enough problem to occupy her time.

Working out this new problem in a lab also gives her more reasons to recruit Bucky in to getting to know her, and for her to get to know him. She needs a test subject with an advanced metabolism she can monitor to see if her formula and its variations are working. Surprisingly, Barnes is actually a pretty good sport about it and the grimaces and other faces of displeasure he pulls over flavor and consistency of her various attempts are incredibly humanizing to her.

She manages to wheedle out the fact that Barnes has a sweet tooth that's existed since before the Archduke got shot. The fact comes with a story Bucky half remembers and shares hesitantly about he and Steve pooling whatever pocket money they could scrounge together as kids and using it to buy chocolate bars they could share. When it's clear that she's a quiet and also willing audience Barnes warms a little about talking on the subject and tells another story about using lemonade powder from army K-Rations and mixing it with snow to make an army version of lemon sorbet.

After that Cassie starts keeping jars of lollipops and other candies around in her office and lab. It's good for a few laughs and typical doctor jokes and gets her some extra good will from the people who work for her. Plus it's incredible what you can find out about someone from their candy and junk food preferences.

Most people knew that Natasha Romanov could absolutely kick ass, but how many people on the planet were aware that the same woman could power through a handful of Wearther's Original Caramels waiting for her to stitch up a gash in Barton's thigh? Not many probably. In his own turn Barton eats about half a bowl of Reases Pieces by throwing them at the ceiling and catching them in his mouth while she treats Natasha for a bullet wound. Apparently he used to do it in his down time at the circus before he joined SHIELD.

Pepper comes down to visit her and leaves with a package of Fruit Snacks which she admits to Cassie are the same type her dad used to fill her lunch box with just after her mother had died before he figured out how to actually feed his children. Even Tony forgets some of his still low boiling anger with her when she offers up a large bowl of Skittles. He acerbically throws out a comment about dividing these packages in to color order and eating them one at a time while he was bored during lectures at MIT.

Banner on the other hand absently plows through a box of Junior Mints while he reads through some of the research Cassie's compiled on super soldier metabolisms and looks genuinely surprised when his fingers scrape the cardboard at the bottom of the box. Apparently the Other Guy finds the minty flavor calming and Banner has a week spot for all things chocolate.

Thor has a strange predisposition for blue raspberry lollipops that has Cassie genuinely puzzled for a few days. She has to say, after all of her previous experiences with Asgardians and Olympians in the past, she should stop being surprised by quirks. However, watching the Norse god of thunder wrestle with opening a DumDum wrapper without tearing it before happily depositing the candy in his mouth is one of the strangest things she's ever seen. The mystery gets solved when Jane Foster lights up at the sight of the same candy during one of her visits and it hits Cassie like a punch to the gut to realize that a _god_ is eating a certain type of candy because his mortal girlfriend likes it.

It leaves her wondering if her father ever cared about her mother that much. Somehow she doesn't think so. That kind of hapless cutesy devotion didn't leave room for abandonment. Cassie isn't sure if that makes her own family history better or worse.

Sam Wilson is a fan of sour candies and Cassie wins his undying support by introducing him to Warheads. She's pretty sure the amusement he gets form the name doesn't hurt. Apparently he's loved sour stuff since childhood as a result of too much southern sweet tea. James Rhodes surprises her by admitting that he has a weakness for all things gummy. A single conversational poke has him telling her that this weakness was discovered during his wife's first pregnancy. Rhodes had shown solidarity by sampling each of her food cravings for himself.

Steve possesses a deep and abiding love for chocolate in almost any farm that he's kept under wraps from the general public and when Cassie finds out about it she doesn't hesitate to take shameless advantage of the opportunities it provides. One night she drags him to a fondue place Pepper recommends. The restaurant operates by having a flaming pot at each place filled with the ordered substance. They start with bread and meat dipped in to cheese. Then at desert Cassie orders a chocolate fondue pot desert that comes with fruit and marshmallows. Steve looks at her like she's just as much a goddess as her aunt is when he sees what they're concluding their meal with. It's a good night, filled with happy conversation, unchecked laughter, and wandering kisses that taste like chocolate.

Figuring out which sweet treat is Bucky's favorite takes longer though. It becomes a sort of auxiliary project to Cassie's endeavors with the protein bars and she experiments by having a different type of candy on display each time he visits. Idly she charts the varying results.

It almost looks like she's struck gold with the introduction of Snickers minis. Twix bars are a similar near miss and Kit Kat bars seem like they're nearly a winner. Nerds are treated with puzzled skepticism and Barnes looks at licorice and Twizzlers with an expression of thinly veiled disgust. He makes the mistake of reading the ingredients printed on a package of gummy bears and then refuses to even touch them.

Finally Cassie throws up her hands in near defeat and buys a large box of Fun Dip. This time she doesn't even bother waiting for Barnes to poke around to find the candy and instead throws it at him as soon as he steps through the doorway of her office. He catch it before the package can hit him in the face and examines it with an intensity that probably isn't warranted for the situation.

"What is this?" He asks it in a way that makes it seem like he might be looking at a newly discovered species. To a guy like him, this kind of candy might qualify as pretty much exactly that. Cassie wouldn't know.

Cassie shrugs. "Basically pure sugar with some other stuff thrown in," she says. "It's not ideal but I've run through most of the offers at the candy shop by now and I am determined to figure out what your favorite will be. Eat it for science."

Barnes looks at her skeptically but slowly sits in her spare office chair and pops open the seal on the package. He examines the contents warily and then looks back at her like he's trying to work out if this might be the moment she tries to poison him. Then he licks a finger, coats it in the sticky powder, and pops it in to his mouth and sucks contemplatively. "I can't decide," he says slowly after he's rolled the flavor across his tongue for a moment. "If this is an exact embodiment of what I fought for, or a perfect example of why the rest of the world seems to hate us."

The moment expands like stretched salt water taffy for several long silent seconds... then Cassie bursts out laughing. Bucky doesn't join her verbally, but he does duck his head and by angling her own Cassie can see that one side of his mouth is twitching up and down like he wants to smile and doesn't know quite what to do with the impulse. He quietly goes back to his Fun Dip and Cassie leaves the room for a moment. When she comes back Bucky is gone and the plastic package is empty. After that Cassie keeps that particular candy on hand in her top desk drawer and Bucky never outright asks for it but the packages deplete in number steadily after his visits.

In the end she gets the protein bars formulated and manages to steadily improve their flavor to the point where they're no worse in taste than the average Quest Bar. An offhand comment about childhood starvation in third world countries as Banner tells a story about the work he did in India sets Cassie's wheels spinning and the next project she decides on is tweaking the formula for easier mass production to be distributed by FEMA and the Red Cross. She presents the idea to Pepper who approves it sight unseen for a fantastic P.R opportunity and the chance to do some good before flying it by Tony who can't argue. Banner also agrees to help her with this part and donates his time with no argument.

Spending more time with Banner and getting to know the man better leads Cassie to her next project and results in her digging up all of her medical text books to find the sections on radiation poisoning and multiple personality and intermittent explosive disorder. She also gets on the phone to Piper who studied psychology pretty extensively in college and a few days later has a secondary stack of books and information to sort through. She also trawls the internet and contacts some old professors and walks away with pile after pile of printed information. For good measure, she goes through the entirety of SHIELD's medical files on Banner.

Cassie catches Banner looking at her questioningly a few times as she types away at her computer in one of their shared lab spaces, but he never says anything. He probably knows what she's doing, so either he thinks it would be pointless to try to stop her, or he's hoping she might be able to find what no one else has yet. Cassie doesn't bring it up with him. She doesn't know if her search will turn up what she wants it to, and until she's a bit more sure she refuses to hold up false hope.

All of the information on Hulk is a lot to comb through and Cassie does it in small, hopefully more digestible pieces. The main problem in this situation is that over half of the Hulk file has to do with Gamma radiation and nuclear physics, neither of which are areas Cassie actually have any training in. It becomes painfully clear about two days in to trying to muddle through everything that the only way she'll make any real progress on helping Banner is by changing that fact.

So, with a determination only half-bloods who kept themselves alive with nothing but a gritty determination to not die about eighty percent of the time, Cassie dives in to the world of nuclear physics. She starts from the beginning and moves slowly and methodically through mountain upon mountain of specialized obscure knowledge. Honestly thank all the gods in all the cultures for online classes and instructional videos on YouTube.

Over the days and weeks and eventually months that follow Cassie works together a patchy and loosely stitched together knowledge base and moves forwards to more advanced concepts and problems. In some ways it feels like being back in medical school. In some ways it probably is. Cassie has in essence started herself on a whole separate PhD program with no actual instructors.

In late October, Steve comes back to the apartment fairly late at night after another trip to Washington D.C he hadn't been able to get out of. A lot of the time dealing with the U.S government was left to him, Sam, or Rhodes. Since the downfall of SHIELD Natasha had been helping on that front as well. It meant that even when Steve wasn't on a mission he sometimes had to spend days at a time away from home, and almost without fail he came back spitting mad and bitterly frustrated with bureaucracy.

This time is no exception and Cassie's still awake and at home which she isn't always between late hours and monster patrols. Bucky is at the gym trying to exhaust himself in to nightmare free sleep which is a problem management strategy Cassie will try dealing with some other time. Anyway, she'd taken advantage of the emptiness to lay out a complex pattern of notes and texts around her on the living room and she sits with her back to the base of the couch. She's lost track of time and her hair is being held in it's bun with a yellow highlighter as she takes notes on a separate piece of paper using a cheep mechanical pencil.

"Hi," Steve greets tiredly, towing off his shoes near the door and picking his way carefully across to the couch to avoid stepping on her notes which Cassie appreciates. He crawls over the back of the couch where there's more floor space and flops exhaustedly behind her. She hears him take a deep breath and the pillows shift as he adjusts.

'Hey," Cassie greats without turning around. What she does do is reach behind her with the hand she isn't using to take notes and pat his knee. From the texture she can tell that he's still in the suite he had on during is meeting and must not have changed before coming back. "I'll turn back in to a good girlfriend and ask how everything went in like two minutes I promise, but if I stop looking at this now it's going to stop making sense and I'll have to start the whole chapter over again."

More rustling sounds as Steve shifts again. This newest shift brings him closer to her and Cassie feels his feet settle on the floor on either side of her. Warm fingers brush the back of her neck and the shell of her ear and a moment later her hair falls free of it's bun as Steve removes the highlighter and sets it aside. "Take your time," he murmurs quietly, fiddling with the ends of her hair.

Steve doesn't lie and doesn't bullshit around how he feels or what he wants so Cassie takes his words at their face value and pats his knee again before refocusing her whole attention on her notes. The minutes tick by quietly with Steve's nimble fingers sifting gently through the knots he finds in the gold strands that normally rest near the bottom of her ribcage. The only sounds are both of they breathing, the quiet rustle of pages turning, and the even quieter scratch of her pencil led over paper.

Soon enough she's done with her section and shuts her book with a satisfied snap. She arches forward and yawns, twisting her neck and extending her arms. Several of her joints pop audibly and she turns a little ways to smile in Steve's direction. He smiles back at her and his fingers migrate from her hair to her shoulders, digging in and carefully and methodically working through a series of tension knots that have built up over the last several hours.

Cassie makes a contented humming noise in the back of her throat and leans back in to his touch. She lets her neck relax and her head lolls back on to one of his knees. "All done?" Steve asks quietly. His voice is low and soft right next to her ear and the sound sends pleasant shivers up and down her spine.

Slowly Cassie nods and turns her head to look up at him. "All done," she confirms. "For now anyway. There'll be more to do tomorrow. Pretty soon I think I'll just have to suck it up and ask Stark for help getting through this. I'm not an idiot, but I can't teach myself PhD level nuclear physics in any real way. Not at the level I need to know it to understand that." She gestures vaguely at the overstuffed Hulk file in all of it's sticky note covered glory.

In a movement that displays the kind of casual strength that could be frightening Steve locks his arms gently but firmly near her arms and ribs and lifts her up off the floor and up to the couch so that she's sitting across his lap. A few more of her joints voice their objections at the change in position but Cassie ignores that in favor of situation herself against Steve's chest, reaching up with practiced hands to undo the tie still secured around Steve's throat. Once it's gone she undoes the stop few buttons of his collared shirt too and helps him shift to pull off his suite jacket.

Once the constricting clothes are removed the reduction to Steve's retained tension level is actually palpable. He sighs, relaxing further in to the couch cushions and Cassie resettles herself to comply with the position change. Steve sighs and reaches up, cradling her cheek in one hand, she turns her face a little in to his palm and a small smile pulls at Steve's mouth.

"What's funny?" Cassie asks, smiling in response to his calmed demeanor.

Steve's smile becomes full, certain, and true and he brushes his thumb over a space on her cheekbone. "Put it this way... a smoother guy would be able to spin a line about how you've managed to highlight what's really important."

Cassie lifts her own fingers to her cheek. It's not like she'll be able to feel the ink on her skin if it's already dried but she makes the gesture on instinct. "Oh gods, how bad?"

Instead of answering her question Steve brushes her hand away to replace it with his own and shakes his head in gentle reproach. He's looking at her with an expression Cassie's never quite seen before and doesn't know exactly how to name. It's a big look, deep and bottomless and Cassie feels like in that moment she could fall in to his eyes and happily drown there. "Beautiful," he corrects. "Not bad. And for what it's worth, I think what you're doing here is amazing. And not just what you're doing right now for Banner, what you've already done for the team. For Bucky, for me, for everyone. It's..." for a moment he seems lost for words, seemingly uncomprehending with wonder over her entire presence in his life at this moment. "It's incredible."

Well really.

After that Cassie really has no other choice but to kiss him.

Her boyfriend has been gone and now he's back and sitting there beneath her warm and moving towards relaxed and saying the most wonderful things he possibly could. And he's looking up at her like she's the answer to every question he can think of to ask in the entire universe and he can't believe someone like her is actually real. Cassie can't see her own face, but she hopes her expression is mirroring his as nearly as possible.

Steve's mouth is the perfect combination of firm and soft against hers and he sits up at the first contact to hold her more firmly against him. Cassie opens her mouth against his and Steve takes the movement for the invitation it is as the kiss deepens. In her turn Cassie takes advantage of the new space between Steve and the back of the couch and shifts to wrap her legs securely around his waist. The movement makes her shirt ride up and Steve's hands slide down to her hips and up again over the warm bare skin that stretched over her stomach and ribcage, pushing the fabric up and carelessly out of the way.

Dimly, Cassie thinks she can hear one of the seams rip and Steve murmurs a half formed apology against her mouth. Cassie shakes her head and breaks away slightly to regain her breath and press a line of kisses over his jaw and back along the line of it towards the small patch of sensitive skin below his ear lobe, hopefully expressing without words exactly how little she cares about a ripped shirt right now. Steve seems to understand because a flurry of kisses lands on her collar bone moving towards her shoulder as Steve noses the strap of her tank top out of the way and his breath fans out over her skin before he guides her mouth back to his.

An incalculable amount of time later, they are actually forced to separate far enough to draw more than one deep breath in a row. There is a dim light spreading through the room, illuminating everything in a buttery glow and Steve's eyes are a darker blue than Cassie has ever seen them, the color of his irises almost swallowed by his pupils. The moment is the most perfect one Cassie has ever lived, and being surrounded in that feeling is maybe what prompts Cassie to voice the words that have been lying unspoken on her tongue for a while.

"I love you." The words are said so softly that they only barely have sound at all, but in the silence of the room and how close they are together she knows that Steve can hear each and every syllable. It's possible that they are the most important words she's ever said, or will ever say in her entire life.

Steve's eyes shut, letting the words wash over him. Then he's kissing her again. Her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids, her lips. He's frantic, and tender, and so achingly loving that no matter whether he returns the words or not, Cassie knows what this moment means. Then he lays his forehead against hers and they're presses so closely together that Cassie can feel the sweep of Steve's eyelashes against her cheeks. "I love you," he replies.

Cassie is smiling, and isn't actually shocked to feel a slight wetness against her cheeks. She doesn't know if those tears are hers or his but the shared flood of emotions they've just embarked on means it probably doesn't matter that much. "Oh good," Cassie breathes without thinking before brushing her thumbs under his eyes. "Because I've never said that before and I didn't really plan it but we both do this stuff where we nearly die a lot and I just felt it right now so-"

The rest of her words are lost to Steve's next kiss, and that's probably a good thing because her mouth had been running without a filter there and needed to stop. Then Steve backs away slightly. "Could you say it again?" he asks hoarsely.

Her next smile opens and spreads against his mouth. "I love you," she repeats.

And for the next several hours, those word and each other's names are the only things either of them say. They say them in to warm space and in the gaps between kisses and they say so completely without words. If this is what being in love feels like... well... Cassie might owe Aphrodite a bit of a retroactive apology.

That year is one of the first times Cassie can ever remember having fun on Halloween. Through some small miracle she actually manages to get the entire Avengers roster to agree to participate. The job is made easier by the fact that she manages to get Pepper and Natasha on board by bringing up free candy and the potentially abundant blackmail material this night represents.

Pepper accomplishes things in broad strokes which in this case means that she makes attendance mandatory for all those who work at Stark Tower and this gauntness the presence of Jane which attaches Darcy and Thor to the event. It also means that Tony will be there because when Cassie has learned that when it comes to that man, Pepper will forever and always get what she wants. Banner and Rhodes are thus roped in for Stark Supervision, a job the two have learned to split and delegate with practice.

Natasha, ever the super spy, goes for a more targeted and individualized approach. To this day Cassie will never know what is said in the flurries of Russian the woman directs at Bucky and Barton in turn, but in the end both men have given in. Barton did so after approximately six seconds with a gusty sigh, evidently recognizing the signs of an argument he will not win. Bucky takes a little longer, and Cassie likes to think she helps things along by mentioning that she'll be asking Rachel to meet up with them over the course of the night. Cassie's father rescinded the ancient rules on oracle dating a while ago after a brief stint of being mortal and not liking the complexity of teenaged emotion very much and while Cassie has no desire to pull a matchmaker, she is willing to help shove things along sometimes.

By the time everyone is rounded up (though determined not to spend any time costume shopping) Pepper has gotten thoroughly in to the swing of things and dragged Tony along with her. Pepper takes over the costume planning and dispatches some of her many minions to handle everything and Cassie is perfectly willing to step back and watch the magic, helpfully providing clothing samples and sizes based on her medical files and open access laundry.

On Halloween evening when she returns to the apartment from her office a germ net bag containing her costume has materialized in her room. Cassie takes the costume out of the bag, sees what it is, and can't fight back the laugh it triggers. Apparently, tonight is going to follow a theme. When everyone assembles in the lobby, they are distinctly less superhero and much more Disney princess cartoon.

Thor's normal base outfit has been barely altered for him to play Hercules, his hammer magicked in to the form of a sword for the evening. Jane's clothing corresponds by being a classic Greek Chiton for Meg. Cassie takes a couple of minutes to help her pin it correctly.

Pepper and Tony have gone the way of Emperors New Groove with Tony as Cuzco and Pepper as Yzma. Rhodes shows up dressed in a dark suite and sunglasses to be Mr. Bubbles from Lilio & Stitch, accompanied by his daughter dressed as Lilo and clutching a stitch stuffed animal nearly as big as she is. Banner is dressed as the Beast which he gripes at for being too on the nose but doesn't fuss much, and Darcy seems happy as a prince-less Snow White.

Barton calmly shows up in his SHIELD tactical gear with a green hoodie over the top and special green fletched arrows to honor the occasion. Natasha has apparently borrowed his spare bow for the evening and spun her hair out in to the kind of curls Cassie's own hair will never be able to manage. With the addition of a lovely green dress and a Scottish accent so perfected Cassie thinks it might have been involved in a mission at some point, the Black Widow is temporarily transformed in to Merida.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare meets them just outside the tower. Her hair is straightened slightly for the evening using some kind of glitter ladened gel. A shimmery coating of some kind of similar substance covers all of her exposed skin, which in her outfit for the evening is plentiful. She's wearing iridescently scaled green-blue harem pants and a purplish tube top designed to look like shells. In one hand, she's clutching a fork and there's a bubble of water with a large yellow fish in it floating calmly at her shoulder level. Cassie suspects that that last bit is courtesy of Percy.

Bucky, whom Cassie ensured a few days earlier has watched The Little Mermaid at Peppers insistence, absorbs the outfit. Then he looks down at the white henley and black pants he's wearing and sighs. "I get what you're doing," he states.

"Thank me later," Cassie mutters back. Then Bucky scowls at her and begins to make his way down the steps towards Rachel. Sam shrugs and follows him at a distance. Sam is dressed as the guy from the Princess and the Frog this evening, in a white suite with a large stuffed green frog on his shoulder. By the end of the night Cassie suspects that Rhodes' daughter will have laid claim to it.

For her own part, Cassie is dressed like Briar Rose from the beginning of Sleeping Beauty. Steve is at he side dressed as Prince Phillip. Personally, Cassie suspects this costume is equal parts mockery and mercy. Mercy because Steve can recognize it without further explanation. Mockery because of the whole 'someone slept for a really long time and then woke up' element.

They all wander around throughout the night, separating, mingling, and mixing with the crowds. They chat and talk openly about things that have nothing to do with the end of the world and spend long hours accumulating small individualized mountains of candy. But when Cassie reflects on the night later and thinks about why it made her happy, she thinks the reason is that they all got to spend an entire night out in public without being recognized, bothered or harassed. In the seas of milling costumed people, they are for once, nearly indistinguishable from everyone else. Occasionally anonymity is a truly beautiful thing.

Time begins to slip by in the gentle, soft, melting wax way time sometimes does when nothing world ending interrupts life. Cassie's nutrition bar formula gets released to a few different world aide organizations and she manages to work out a word sequence that can get the Hulk calmed down. Banner and Natasha have a talk and it get's decided that that word sequence should be keyed to her voice. Apparently Hulk finds Natasha the least threatening person on the team when he's in primal mind.

Bucky spends a bit more time out in the world talking to people and eating at restaurants and in general being alive. From Rachel, Cassie knows that they've met up a few times but doesn't push for details outside of what Rachel's willing to say. Bucky tells Steve even less but they pool what they know enough to paint a rough picture. At first Steve has a hard time letting Bucky just... go by himself. Bucky's therapist tells him that it's good though and Cassie backs him with whatever knowledge she has and the combination along with a little time seem to be enough to sooth his nerves on the matter.

Even the arctic tundra landscape that's been the friendship zone between Steve, Tony, and Bucky seems to be slowly thawing out. They exchange polite nods and occasional small talk when they come face to face at any rate. There's also a distinct lack of open hostility and once or twice in the lab, Cassie catches sight of diagrams for an advanced mechanical arm on Tony's work surface.

Unfortunately, it takes a near disaster for the uneasy temporary truce to resolve in to an official end of conflict. They've made an Avengers wide trip out to Los Angeles for New Year. The team has to speak at a press conference and Pepper uses the opportunity to check in on how the company is running on the West Coast. Banner adds a sort of college lecture tour to his own itinerary. Cassie goes along to a few of those lectures, but she gets the feeling her name was mostly thrown on to the trip roster to keep the media attention from driving Steve completely insane.

Bucky is there serving a similar purpose, and getting his face out in to the world as part of the group before he ends up on CNN with news footage of the latest crisis. He's also taken up the habit of hovering near Cassie when Steve's busy and they aren't. Cassie has an inkling that he does it out of a floating misplaced protective instinct combined with the fact that she carries snacks and sometimes slips him candy.

The near disaster happens on December thirty-first well before the party for the evening is set to get underway. They're doing one last press event with Pepper presiding over everything from a podium at the front of the room. Cassie is sitting in the front row in front of all of the reporters and cameramen and thinks she might be half blind from all of the flashes. Tony, Steve, Thor, Sam, Natasha, and Barton are lined up behind her and each of them answers the questions directed at them with scripted pre-approved words. Banner had excused himself from the proceedings and everyone else had respected his privacy.

Halfway through Thor beaming his way through a question about an obscure Asgardian battle custom Cassie knows for a fact got discontinued a millennia ago, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot cracks through the space. There's the sound of shattering class and people screaming.

What happens next does so in the blink of an eye. Cassie is out of her chair and moving for the stage before she takes a breath. Thor has summoned his hammer and taken to the air, one hand pulling Barton with him as the person most likely to be able to track the shot. Stark activates his suite and Natasha takes up a defensive position, a baton crackling with electricity at both ends having appeared in her hands out of nowhere. Steve casts one frantic look at Cassie, sees that she's alright, and then shoots out of the room like a bat out of hell, Sam right behind him.

Cassie's aim is to get to Pepper who has sensibly taken cover behind the press podium. It's a good move, especially knowing what Cassie does. The shot had been aimed at Pepper.

However, Pepper herself isn't the person that Cassie is most worried about. No. What concerns her most is the fact that her vision had been good enough to process the image of Bucky being the one who had tackled Pepper to the ground, placing himself between her and the bullet. Now Cassie can see Bucky's legs splayed out across the floor, and a small pool of blood spreading and seeping over the tiles.

She works quickly to inspect the wound and stem the bleeding. It's a though and through that missed all vital organs which makes it not as bad as it could have been, and Cassie partially heals it with magic within minutes. Bucky is even conscious and mutters the occasional curse as she works, the healing magic stinging as it repairs the damage done.

After that they proceed with the New Years Eve Party as though nothing happened, an act of defiance on Tony's part though the security on the event triples in the space of an hour. Cassie kisses Steve at midnight like superstition says she's supposed to and fervently hopes for a good year. Later, out of the corner of her eye Cassie notices Tony showing Bucky a design for a new arm scribbled out and copied on to a cocktail napkin, belligerently picking his brain for possible additional features. She thinks that really, all things considered, the year that's ending wasn't so bad. Another one a little like it wouldn't be the worst thing.

Before the new arm is to be fitted Bucky comes to her and asks her the question she's been half expecting for the last several months. They're back in New York and it's the middle of January by then. The sky outside is grey and large white flakes drift periodically across the windows of her office.

"Could you heal it?" he asks. "My arm. Before I would have thought it was impossible, but I've seen some of what you've done since then."

Cassie slowly puts down the chart she had been examining and looks at Bucky with measuring consideration. He had come in to the room on soulless feet, and she'd only realized he was there because of years of intensive training to hone her senses. "I don't think so," she says eventually. "As far as I know, no one can actually grow back a limb. A full fledged god might be able to do it..."

A slight frown slashes itself between Bucky's eyes. "I've heard stories about you being able to reattach them before..."

He leaves the sentence hanging and Cassie hears the question in the silence that follows. "That's different," she explains. "It's- It's like, weaving two pieces of fabric back together. Only, picture doing that with fabric that wants to be whole." Bucky's frown hasn't lessened and Cassie gets the feeling she isn't explaining very well. She sighs and has to back up.

"From the second an injury happens, your body starts trying to heal itself," she says. "It's just that with most people, that process is so slow they can't feel it, and with serious injuries it doesn't happen quickly enough to save the injured person. With things like amputation, there's only so much that the human body can do. It wants to reconnect itself, but the amount of energy needed to make that kind of healing happen doesn't exist. When I reconnect pieces it's because my magic works as a kind of healing jumper cable. But regrowing a limb... that would take an entire city grid. No one alive has that kind of power." She shrugged helplessly. "If I had been there at the time with the arm I could have reattached it, but at this point, even your body considers the injury healed."

Bucky's expression clears. "Ah. I didn't actually expect that you'd be able to, but I had to ask."

Cassie casts him a small smile. "I might be able to heal the scar tissue?" she offers. "Before Tony's new mechanical arm goes on. I could reduce the injured tissue around the original sight. It could help with pain and stiffness, and might make the attachment easier."

"I thought people considered scars normal, or identifying these days," Bucky states with a raised eyebrow.

She cocks her head to the side as she turns her words over in her mind. "Sometimes they are," she agrees. "I have scars on my stomach, on my back and arms from battles. I've been fighting since age eight and they mark major events and the passage of time. But some scars, all they are is a record of pain. And people shouldn't have to advertise that kind of thing if they don't want to."

Bucky considers her words. "I don't mind carrying the marks," he says, deciding out loud. "But maybe you could drain the inflammation."

That's an easy enough thing to do and Cassie gestures for hm to sit on the spare office chair. Then she places her hand on his shoulder and concentrates, sending a controlled burst of power in to the scars. She goes carefully, only making the tissue reduce backward in to the rest of his skin. The lines of the scars are still there, pinkish white and twisted looking, but they are no longer raised to the touch. "There," she says, backing away.

Bucky thanks her and leaves the room and Cassie starts thinking over the kinds of scars that aren't so easy to see. In particular Cassie considers the shattered memory pathways in Bucky's brain. The brain was after all a physical object even if the psychological mind was not. With that in mind Cassie files a requisition for the files that SHIELD had seized from HYDRA on the programming Bucky had gone through.

It's a lot of reading material and absolutely none of it is pleasant. After two hours, the world is starting to go dark outside the window and Cassie makes the decision that the rest of the files will wait until the morning. Some of the details are ghastly and Cassie doesn't need extra material for nightmares.

Steve is already at home and is unpacking a large bag of take out on to the counter. "Hi," he greets as he leans down to kiss her. Cassie goes up on to her toes to lean in to it and grips his shirt to hold herself closer. The kiss breaks when her stomach growls and Cassie drops away with a smile. "I guess I made a good call on picking up dinner," he says with a smile.

"Definitely," Cassie agrees with a bright smile. "Set it up on the coffee table and we can eat on the couch," she suggests. "I'm gonna go change before we eat."

Five minutes later they're both states on the sofa. Steve is sitting at one end with Cassie's feet in her lap as she sits against the other. He's giving her the basic outline of his day and happily reports that Tony is speaking to him normally, or at least, as normally as Tony ever does. Sarcasm and thinly veiled contempt apparently still abound. "How was your day?" he asks, digging in to a carton of noodles.

"It was good," she says. "Bucky finally came to see me about his arm. I've been waiting for him to do it for a while now."

Steve nods. "He told me he was thinking about it," he confides. "I said I didn't know if you'd be able to do anything about it but that it couldn't hurt to ask."

Cassie greets this new bit of information with a half nod and shrug combination perfected during her teenage years. "Well you were right it didn't hurt anything. In fact I helped a little with some of the scarring and damage at the attachment sight. "I can't actually regrow the arm. I might have been able to reattach it if I'd had the arm and been there when it first happened. But without the arm and after seventy years..." she lets the words trail off and Steve doesn't push her to finish the thought.

"What would that have been like?" Steve muses out loud. "You said there were demigods involved on both sides of the war."

"There were," Cassie affirms. "I think I might have told you before that godly conflicts normally mirror human ones. All of the gods ended up picking sides. My dad and grandfather both allied with Zeus so that's the side their children ended up on." She takes another bite of her food and sets the carton aside. "I would have been on your side if it helps. Probably would have ended up being a nurse."

Steve smiles, and the expression is a little bit wistful and a tiny bit sad. "That's what my mom was."

Cassie leans forward and brushes the back of her hand along his cheek bone. "Some day you'll have to tell me about her," she says quietly. "I'd like to know about her if you feel like telling me."

His eyes shut, lashes almost brushing her skin and he sets aside his own food to pull Cassie in to his lap. Cassie goes easily and tucks herself against his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart and feeling the rise and fall of his breath. She leans up for a kiss and lets herself melt in to the moment. A gust of wind whistles past the window with a sound almost like a shrieking beast and Cassie can only just feel Steve's shudder through her own as she breaks away.

A glance out the window shows her that the snow is now being blown past the window in almost solid white sheets of deceiving fluffiness. "You know," Cassie says, squinting out the window with marked dislike. "I met a snow goddess once. She was evil and helping the original earth goddess Gaea raise the giants to try to destroy the gods and al life as we know it."

"You know," Steve says, his voice vibrating through his chest and in to Cassie's own body. It sends pleasant shivers through her and she presses herself closer and plants a kiss at the corner of his jaw. "That is something that I can absolutely believe."

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? Time's a passing to get closer to AoU. It occurs in May so I'm working through time to get the story there. I honestly didn't originally plan for Bucky/Rachel to be a thing, but it literally came to me in a dream so I figured _what the hell_ and threw it in there to see how it went. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what you guys thought about it. If everyone agrees that they hate it I can always go back and edit it out. Anyway, I got Steve, Bucky, and Tony back around to being on speaking terms and I thought the whole Halloween bit was fun. Tell me what you thought! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize and never will. I don't have the money to buy them from their current owners and likely never will as I have never been nor ever will be paid to write this kind of story.**

 **Quick Note: This chapter involves mass murder and quite a bit of darkness. I had to make HYDRA a more consistent major threat.**

Thanksgiving with the Avengers is a big freaking event. Cassie hadn't been sure that it would be. Psychologically speaking the entire team is technically isolationist loner types. They all do better with the rest of the world held ten feet away. Even Tony and Pepper, the most social of the group, use deflection and polite public masks when interacting with the wider universe. On the other hand, maybe she should have expected that shared isolation would drive them all closer together.

Anyway, Thanksgiving comes and everyone who falls within the Avenger bracket receives a paper invitation in the mail from Pepper. The fact that most of them actually have places of residence where they and Pepper both work doesn't seem to matter. Cassie supposes that to someone running a multibillion dollar corporation, throwing out a couple dollars in unnecessary postage isn't much of a big deal.

For her part, Cassie simply meets Pepper for a nice lunch in the CEO's office and makes an RSVP for her and Steve personally. To cover the basis she tells Pepper that Bucky will be there too. She can't be certain, but she has the feeling that Bucky is the kind of person who sees an officially embossed invitation and treats it live a live explosive. Actually, Sergeant James Barnes the Winter Soldier is probably more comfortable with a live explosive than he is with a dinner invitation.

Thanksgiving dawns and Cassie spends the morning perched on the kitchen counter quietly munching a small pile of peeled carrots while Steve chops and mixes the different ingredients for stuffing. He's making two types, one vegetarian and the other not. Cassie laughingly asks why he bothers when no one at the dinner is vegetarian in the first place and Steve just shrugs and says there's no harm in giving people options. Bucky contributes to the dish by producing a massive pile of mixed diced vegetables.

Knives are apparently within his wheelhouse.

They all go to the apartment Stark and Pepper stay in at the very top of the building in the early afternoon with Steve responsible for the casserole dish of stuffing and Cassie in charge of opening doors. Bucky hovers just slightly on the periphery next to and a little behind Steve. It takes Cassie about forty seconds to work out that Bucky is protecting Steve's non-dominant left hand side, the place he might be weakest. Bucky may be lacking in specific memories, but the habit of making sure that Steve is alright is apparently one that just won't die no matter what biopsychological bull shit the Nazi scientific division cooked up.

The door opens seemingly of it's own accord when they reach it and Cassie wonders for about the thousandth time since moving in just how extensive JARVIS' programming actually is. She's not as antsy about technology as some demigods are, it helps that she's never had a computer explode in her face just because she entered the wrong phrase in to a search engine, but she's still not much of a techie. The fact that the building she lives and works in is solely run by an admittedly very realistic artificial intelligence isn't something she thinks she'll ever get used to.

Tony is sprawled comfortably on a couch in the middle of a wide open space the contains a state of the art kitchen, a plush living room, and a large wooden dining table set beautifully and surrounded with chairs. Cassie wonders if it's always there, or if Pepper just had it moved in for the holiday. There's some pre-game coverage of Thanksgiving football playing on a large flat screen T.V that Cassie suspects is more technologically advanced than any television she's ever seen before.

Dr. Banner is sitting on a couch near Stark with Sam by his side. Banner appears to be demonstrating something on a tablet and Sam has a pinched look on his face as he tries to understand what Banner is saying. Barton is perched not on a couch, but over the back of it silently sipping a drink Cassie guesses was probably prepared by Natasha given that the woman in question has taken up residence behind the bar and is busy manipulating various bottles. Thor isn't there having been called away to Asgard the week before, but Jane is there. At the moment she's bargaining with her assistant Darcy to get her tablet back. Darcy is refusing stubbornly and delivering a well practiced lecture on the importance of human social interaction.

Pepper is busy arranging a selection of trays and dishes at intervals along the table so Cassie liberates the stuffing dishes from Steve and brings them over to her as Steve gets called away by Sam to debate the merits of football versus baseball. Cassie's heard Steve go on mini tangents about the Dodgers more than once so she has a feeling she knows where that conversation will end up. Bucky wanders his way over to the bar and downs the vodka shot Natasha pours for him in a single swallow

Cassie puts the stuffing in the space Pepper indicates and takes a step back to examine the spread of food. Pepper had been adamant that every bit of dinner for today be produced without caterers which means that everything on the table had been produced by the people in the room. Barton had taken it upon himself to provide the turkey and gravy and Natasha had apparently arrived with two freshly made loaves of challah bread. Sam loudly claims credit for the green bean casserole and Banner had brought the mashed potatoes. Jane brought cranberry sauce and Darcy apparently whipped up some kind of dish involving sweet potatoes and mini marshmallows. Pepper and Tony have managed the salad and pumpkin pie.

All in all everything looks fantastic and Cassie debates snapping a picture on her phone. Actually, she kind of wants to document this entire night. She's had family style dinners with Piper, Jason, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico, Leo, Calypso, Reyna, Hazel, and Frank at both camps or the Jackson's apartment, but she hasn't ever had a dinner quite like this. She can't put her finger on why, but this feels different.

That feeling doesn't fade away as the afternoon and evening go on. Cassie chats with Pepper, Natasha, Darcy, and Jane, and once the game starts she deposits herself on the couch half on top of and half next to Steve. She doesn't follow the game all that closely (after playing Roman War Games and Capture the Flag at Camp Half-Blood regular football isn't very high stakes anymore) but the feeling of being curled up beside Steve surrounded by friends is a good one.

The football game plays out and ends without Cassie ever really tuning in to what's actually going on. Dinner comes afterwards and with minimum ceremony as Tony has thoroughly banned speeches, toasts, oratories, going around the table saying what they're thankful for, or anything at all resembling sappy public speaking. This rule is handed down the moment they all take their seats and Tony announces it to the entire room as Pepper roles her eyes and makes Natasha carve the turkey.

Later Natasha pokes Steve for a story on his past and when Steve refuses Cassie feels a sharp pressure on the top of her foot. She can take a hint but she isn't sure she wants to act on this one. Her policy on asking Steve about his past is generally that'll he'll tell her what's important and what he wants her to know and everything will eventually come with time. With that policy in mind Cassie casts a questioning look up at Steve and raises her eyebrows, letting him know she wouldn't mind hearing a story but also telling him she won't manipulate him in to anything.

He seems to understand because Steve leans down to kiss her. It's a quick thing, barely more than a brush of his mouth on hers, but Steve at his core is a fairly private person so any kind of Public Display of Affection means something extra. Then Steve looks at Natasha's expectant face, sighs, and then turns his attention to Bucky. "Remember Thanksgiving in 1930?" he asks.

Bucky tips his head and Cassie can practically see the gears in his brain spinning and stalling as he tries to work through the tangled and obscured semi-fried memory ends. "Maybe," he says slowly. "We snuck out of the house to check out the local Hooverville didn't we? We got in trouble for it right?"

"You could say that," Steve agrees. "Your mother smacked us both around with an actual wooden spoon."

This scrap of information joins the other bits and pieces Cassie has compiled about Steve in the picture she's painting of his earlier life. It also prompts a small outpouring of personal stories from the rest of the assembled group. Stark's Thanksgiving dinners were always catered and generally full of corporate types he didn't actually know. Natasha would be able to produce the entire meal by herself if she had to thanks to assimilation training and Barton once made a fryer with a turkey in it explode on purpose to create a diversion during a tricky assignment in Milwaukee. What could have possibly required the world's best long distance assassin in Milwaukee, Cassie was almost afraid to ask.

Cassie herself spent most of her childhood Thanksgivings at Camp Half-Blood where it hadn't always been celebrated. Before Percy's new deal with the gods, there hadn't generally been enough year round campers around during the holidays to make serving something different in the dining pavilion worth it. One particular dinner stood out to her though.

The year she had been eleven Chiron had decided to give familial americana traditional dinners during the holidays a shot. The only campers around to attend had been her, Clarisse, Annabeth, and Luke. Clarisse had spent most of the dinner violently destroying an excessively large piece of turkey. Luke, at that point a gangly eighteen year old had barely spoken a word the entire time. He was just back form his doomed quest and the scar on his face was fresh and shinning pink. Annabeth had just come back to camp after a failed attempt at living back with her father and step-family. Dionysus powered through four cans of coke, grumbling the entire time about how stupid the entire dinner was. Chiron had tried to get them all through it but to no avail.

Dionysus vanished- quite literally vanished- before the meal was over after being called to Olympus for a meeting. Once the meat course was over Clarisse had stormed out to go electrocute innocent rocks, and Chiron had had to leave soon afterwards. He hadn't said why, but given that he'd been muttering about wayward electric blasts setting trees on fire and panicking dryads it hadn't been hard to guess.

After the others had left Luke had thrown down his utensils, declared the entire business a bust, and begun to shuffle Annabeth and Cassie out of the Big House. He hadn't stopped until the two of them had been settles at the base of Thalia's pine tree. He'd told them both to wait there and reappeared after twenty minutes carrying a large pizza, a few water bottles, and a tub of chocolate ice cream.

They'd eaten it there on the hillside, protected from the November chill by the weather boundaries sound the property. Cassie had handled the residual temperature damage by focusing light to start a small, contained fire on the ground before them. Annabeth had sketched out battle strategies and chariot designs on the ground with a stick to ask for their opinions, and between her and Cassie they'd managed to make Luke smile. That good mood had continued as Luke produced supplies for amores as the light faded out of the day.

Not one of them had felt like returning to their cabins at the end of the meal, so they'd decided to camp at the base of the tree for the night. Luke had vanished and come back with supplies from the camp store and Annabeth had set up the tents, the poles and fabric leaping in to place beneath her fingers. Cassie made sure the fire kept going until they all went to sleep. She remembers the Luke sent her and Annabeth to bed and had stayed out sitting next to the fire, his face outlined in the cast of the flickering light. It wasn't until the next morning that Cassie realized that they'd never made a sacrifice to the gods.

Cassie tells that story when it's her turn to speak. It's not a perfect happy memory, but looking back on it it's still a good one. The darkness that would creep in on the corners of their lives had still been kept at bay. In fact, it had been one of the last times when Luke had simply kept her and Annabeth safe, standing guard between them and the rest of the world the way he had on their feverish dash to camp.

It's a good enough memory to pass muster and they move on to bothering Sam for details of his childhood. Steve wraps an arm around her, pressing the flat of his palm gently against her side. Something in her voice must have told him that the memory wasn't entirely a sweet one. Cassie reaches up to take his hand where it rests on her side and gives it a reassuring squeeze. "I'll tell you about it later," she murmurs in his ear on the pretext of kissing him on the cheek. Steve gives a nearly imperceptible nod and places his own kiss against her hairline.

Once the dinner is over and final desert has been had they return to their apartment. Bucky vanishes to his room after wishing them goodnight. They each return the words and Cassie sets up a small flame using the kitchen grill. She sacrifices part of the plate of leftovers with a short prayer. "Sas efcharisto ton patera Apollo. Tibi gratius avus Mercury." The sacrifice vanishes with a whiff of sweet smelling smoke and Cassie blows out the candle and puts it away.

"I understood the Latin part," Steve says with a casual tilt of the head as he takes a seat at the breakfast counter. "Thank you grandfather Mercury. Was the Greek for your father?"

Cassie nods and hops up on to the counter, kicking her heels fitfully. "As you've noticed it's not something I do all the time. But on days like this, ones where mortals have feasts, it's a good idea to do a small sacrifice to whichever gods you most want on your good side." She pauses for a moment and then shrugs and forges ahead. "The year I talked about earlier when I mentioned that memory, we didn't do it then. Luke never brought it up and Annabeth and I were distracted by other things. Maybe Luke had already started feeling bitter towards his father, we just- we couldn't see it."

Steve doesn't ask her to explain further. She's told him some about Luke, about Annabeth and Thalia and the tiny ragged family the four of them had made out of the broken pieces of themselves as children. She's told him a little more about the war against Chronos and the parts they all had to play. Her nightmares had required that much honesty, and Steve had returned it on the nights when he woke up gasping for breath, drowning in memories of slowly freezing in icy arctic water. Pain in the face of someone you loved brought about honesty faster than any other force ever could.

Instead Steve reaches out to place his hands on her hips and draw her across the counter to be closer to him. Cassie's noticed in the last months that he reaches for her unconsciously whenever they are close, but not close enough. It's as though she's become his touch stone, a teacher to keep him attached to reality when he allows his mind to wander. She supposes that there are girls in the world who might be annoyed or put off by that, but Cassie doesn't. Steve is so often intently concentrated in his presence of mind and mental and physical awareness, being the person he allows to keep a hold of him when he feels safe enough to drift away is a gift Cassie holds closely to her heart.

"Can I ask you a question?" Steve asks eventually, fingers stroking lightly along the sides of her ribcage.

Cassie's eyebrows shoot up against her will in her surprise. Steve rarely pushes for answers she doesn't want to give, but he doesn't normally shy away from asking questions either. Driven by curiosity as much as anything else, Cassie gives him a nod and waits to see what he will ask.

Steve waits another moment before whatever question he wants to ask makes it's way to his lips. "Do the gods love their children?"

It's such an unexpected question that Cassie has to do a double take. The gut response she wants to make freezes on its way to her mouth and she swallows it back, actually considering the question and the full implications of it. Maybe it's strange, but Cassie has never actually wondered about weather her father or grandfather love her. She's fought wars for them, but their love for her, or hers for them has never been something she's paid much attention to. Maybe she hadn't wanted to.

"I don't think they do- Not always or all the time. I don't think that they could." Steve opens his mouth with his face all ready to speak but she holds up a hand to forestall him for a moment. Now that she's thought about his question she finds she wants to voice her entire answer.

"The gods are old," Cassie says slowly, weighing the words she speaks as they greet the air. "So, so, old. They've been living and falling in love with humans for millennia. Then they have children with those humans and those children are like me, or Percy, or Annabeth, or Jason, or Hazel, or Reyna, or any of the others you met back in August. The blood of our parents leaves us with no choice but to be heroes and heroes often don't live very long. In fact, Percy is named what he is because Perseus was one of the only heroes not to die in pain and alone."

She takes a deep breath and then forges on, forcing herself to meet Steve's bright blue eyes as she does. "We die young," she states, and Steve does not flinch from her honesty. "We live our lives hunted and we fight to survive and the odds of us winning have never been on our side. And if our lives seem short by human standards, humans who live for eighty years on average, imagine how short they must seem to a being who have lived for millennia and will keep living for millennia more."

Comprehension duels with confusion behind Steve's eyes and Cassie continues on. "Loosing a child is supposed to be the very worst thing a parent can ever experience," she says, her own voice quiet and choked to her ears. "I've seen it-seen gods whose demigod children have died. I saw it from Dionysus when one of his sons died. He made Percy swear to make sure the other would live. My own father has mourned the death of two of my brothers, Lee and Michael. It caused freak weather patterns for weeks because the sun wasn't shinning the way it's supposed to. Hades froze his children in time rather than let them die and Zeus changed his daughter in to a pine tree to preserve her life force. Hermes mourned Luke when he died. I don't think-"

She pauses and has to swallow before she keeps going. "I don't think any being, even a god could survive thousands of years of loving their children, and losing them every time." Cassie reaches out and brushes the backs of her fingers along the smoothly shaven skin of Steve's cheek. "They do love us sometimes," she muses aloud. "I think they must. They need us definitely. In times of crisis they answer our prayers. They bless us with power and create safe havens for us. They check in on our lives when they feel that they can. Poseidon went to Percy's fifteenth birthday party. Hades gave Nico a skeleton chauffeur because he worried that Nico was lonely. Aries and Mars have both blessed their children with temporary battlefield invulnerability before. Athena sent help when Annabeth was kidnapped. They come to us in dreams sometimes. But that doesn't change the fact that we are powerful, and the gods have been using their kids as chess piece soldiers in their wars for too long to break the habit now."

Steve wraps his arms more firmly around her and draws her forwards so she's more in his lap on top of the island stool than she is on the island itself. Cassie gently frames his face with her hands as her mind ticks over her words. "When they love us, they love us like stars," she decides finally. At that Steve regards her with a question in his eyes and Cassie moves to answer it. "To the gods, we're far away pretty things that they can only really bear to look at from a distance. Getting close would burn us both and by the time they could get close enough to get to really know and love us the way mortal parents love their children we'd be gone."

These last words make Steve shudder in a way that echoes out of his body and in to hers. He bends his neck, pressing his face in to the space between her neck and shoulder before pressing a line of kisses to the skin there. Neither of them speak after that. Cassie knows that their is no good response for her words and she appreciates that Steve doesn't try to fumble his way towards one.

"I would hate to live forever," the words are a whisper, barely more than a breath of shaped air against her neck.

This time it's Cassie's turn to shudder and she wraps her arms more securely around him. She nods vigorously. "I know," she agrees. "Me too."

The conversation is emotionally draining enough that Cassie feels bone tired afterward. They go to bed early but their plans to sleep in and enjoy a long weekend are shattered when Steve's phone rings just after three in the morning with the news of a violent coup going on in a small African country Cassie refuses to try to pronounce without three more hours of sleep, at least two cups of coffee, and a phonetic break down in front of her. The mission is described as a straight forward peace keeping job to kick the unstable new regime from taking hold and getting the old government back in place before terror and confusion can grip the populace.

Steve grumbles and kisses her hair, telling her to stay in bed. Cassie grumbles something unintelligible back at him and gets up as well. It might be just slightly possible that she's doing it to be contrary more than anything else. Cassie can't decide. Her thoughts are foggy mush even to her before sunrise and with no coffee.

When they get out to the main room Bucky is already there. He's dressed in the high tech thermals he wears under his body armor during combat and muttering at the coffee maker like the machine has done something to personally offend him. Cassie fumbles half a loaf of bread out of a cabinet and starts mass producing toast. A moment later a cup of coffee lands on the counter next to her and Steve reaches across to drop in a few cubes of sugar. By the time she's three swallows in she's starting to feel more present and loads containers with thoroughly buttered and jam covered toast.

She deposits the toast in front of Bucky and leaves the other container for Steve who has ducked back in to their room to change. Bucky mutters his thanks and Cassie nods and takes another swig of coffee before turning back to the toaster to procure her own breakfast. It's obscenely early in the morning to be awake without the motivation of a war or actively running for her life, but she knows herself well enough to know that she won't be able to fall back asleep. Especially not with the first rays of the dawn sun creeping in through the windows.

It's as she contemplates what to do with the extra hours available in her day when her phone begins to ring. Surprised, Cassie fishes the buzzing device out of the pocket of her pajama pants and reads the alert blaring from the screen. "What's up?" Steve asks, reappearing in the doorway pulling on his own thermal shirt. Personally Cassie doesn't think he'll need it in Africa, but Stark's been working on new tech so for all she knows this new shirt is good for all temperature regulation.

"Apparently I've been added to the roster for this particular trip," Cassie tells him, dropping her phone back in to her pocket and downing the rest of her coffee. "Would you take over the toaster? I have to go change." Steve's face tightens ever so slightly and Cassie can practically see his worry-meter tick up by several notches, but he gets himself under control quickly and takes her spot at the counter.

Cassie moves past him in to the bedroom to change out of her pajamas and in to her armor. The mission details sent to her phone had described her role in this as being completely medical, but she doesn't want to take any chances. The beaten leather and finely worked bronze fits tightly to her body while still allowing freedom of movement and mechanically ties her hair back from her face.

As she gets ready her brain ticks over the flash of expression she had seen on Steve's face at the news that she would be going with the rest of them. _Worry_ she realizes. That's what that expression had been. With a sudden shock she realizes that this is the first time she's walked in to a combat zone with Steve with both of them knowingly going in to the situation on purpose. With a shake of her head she sets that thought aside and falls in to the cold pattern of combat compartmentalization. She's done battle with her friends, and watches her friends go in to battle with the people that they love. If they can do it, she and Steve can too.

When she's ready she slings her field bag over her shoulder and ducks back out in to the main room. Steve and Bucky are both ready and waiting by the door, Steve holding out a third container of toast for her. She takes the container gratefully and leans up on her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek. Despite his best efforts, Cassie can still see worry lurking behind his eyes. She doesn't know how to ease it at the moment because that concern isn't rooted in logic or reason. Steve has seen her fight and knows what power she can hold in the palms of her hands, but right now all he's seeing is his girlfriend walking in to a potentially violent combat zone.

Cassie tries for a grin. "Lead on Cap," she says, injecting a teasing tone in to her voice.

The effect she achieves is very nearly the one she wanted. Steve makes a noise that's equal points laugh and scoff and shakes his head as he walks out the door and begins to make his way towards the roof where Stark has a specially designed high tech plane waiting. Cassie moves to go after him but is stopped by the cold pressure of a metal arm forming a bar across the doorway blocking her from passing through. She looks up to see Bucky looking down at her with eyes the same cold blue as a glacier. "Don't die," he says simply.

Cassie reads the unspoken end of his words in his face. _He'll never get over it if you die._ She nods once succinctly. "You too," she says. Then Bucky moves his arm and she leaves to join everyone in the helicopter, Bucky trailing behind her as she goes.

Stark's jet is the nicest vehicle Cassie's ever taken in to a potential combat zone. In fact, on review she thinks its possible that this jet is the nicest vehicle she's ever been in period. One section of the jet is set up as a fully stocked medical bay which Stark tells her is team use only apart from the general supplies. For this mission she'll be working out of a specially designed converted medical tent to administer aid to the injured populace. The main portion of the craft is team seating and equipment storage. The seats are reclinable and made of plush leather with built in individual heating and cooling systems plus cup holders. Cassie can also see a storage container designated for snacks and beverages.

Apparently the jet is also kitted out for supersonic flight because they land on the ground in six hours as opposed to the more averagely achievable sixteen. The jet lands with barely a jolt to show that its no longer airborne and everyone unbuckles their flight harnesses and gear up. They go a little lighter than they might normally considering this is supposed to be mostly a stabilization and peacekeeping mission. For her part Cassie loads up on on malaria pills, bandages, I.V bags, vitamins, and protein bars. She has her standard emergency trauma supplies to, but she figures she might as well do some extra good while she's here.

They drop in to a cleared space in a jungle area about six kilometers outside of the city capital and begin the hike towards their goal. Stark is in full armor with the visor down and Sam has his wings strapped to his back with the accompanying goggles over his eyes. The two of them occasionally take to the air to make area scans to check their position and ensure that they have no hostiles incoming. This strategy lasts for exactly three quarters of the trip before they get within what Barton and Cassie both agree is minimum safe distance for a well trained sniper.

They re-group at ground level, taking cover in the now thinned out tree cover. They aren't an invading combat force, but they also don't want to announce their presence early. The current plan for the group excluding Cassie and for the moment Banner is to get as close to the city capital as possible before going in to action. In this case Steve, Rhodes, Stark, and Sam will be acting as the main points of communication given that between Steve and Stark they anchor the best known symbols of Americana, and Sam and Rhodes have the most recently active military credentials.

"We need to work out the best way to go in without being seen as a threat," Steve states. "Now we can go with our original approach, it's the one Fury approved. But-"

"But Fury is occasionally an unthinking asshole," Stark finishes with the quirk of an eyebrow. "Right yeah we knew that. So what's option to Captain Spangles? Have the flyers go up over the city and make a big show out of it? Or are we going for the covert approach and sending Romanov to sneak sneakily as sneaky sneakers do to open the gates from the inside?"

Steve does his level best to respond evenly but Cassie notes that the back of his neck has stiffened at Tony's flippant attitude. "This meeting is to figure that out," he says. "Natasha, you have experience with unstable regimes. What's your take?"

"As far as routing out the capital and holding it we need to take the residential palace," Natasha states. "Once the chief target is out the rest of his troops should stand down. Most of them have been threatened in to helping and don't actually support the regime according to the intel I've got. If we go fast and hard we can clear the building and take it over."

Bucky leans over the small diagram Steve and Natasha have ben sketching in to the dirt. "It looks like the building can serve as a tactical position," he states. He glances at Barton. "Good sight lines." Barton responds to those words with a simple nod.

"Quick thought," Cassie interrupts stepping forward a little way. "Regardless of how you guys choose to get in I'm going to need to set up the medical center within easy access distance to take care of any injuries. Now, according to the intel I got there's a Red Cross outpost group stuck in this building here," she says sketching a hasty rectangle on their impromptu plan. "They aren't in danger, but they aren't going anywhere either. I was think ing Banner and I could move in separately and join up with them."

Steve considers her words thoughtfully, his mind ticking over the options and Cassie can practically see the gears turning in his head the way that Annabeth's, Jason's, and Frank's sometimes do. Then he gives a decisive nod. "Do you and Banner have your paperwork identifying you as medical personnel?" Cassie confirms that they do and Steve nods again. "Alright go. Stay on comms."

Cassie taps her ear where the communication bud Stark issued her on the plane is nestled. "Got it." She gives Steve a bright smile and adjusts her supply bag where it rests on her shoulders.

Banner just shrugs and picks up his own bag. "I'll do my best." No one has anything to say to that given the implications of Banner's own words. It's a good thing that no one in the group is particularly superstitious or Cassie suspects their would be a lot of fingers being crossed at the moment. No one, including Banner, is under the impression that the Other Guy would help anything in this particular situation.

She and Banner begin the hike in to the city, being methodical and fairly obvious. Banner isn't generally a big talker, and at the moment Cassie is alright with letting the silence exist between them. When they're just on the edge of the populated area Banner pauses which makes Cassie stop and casts a critical eye over her armor. "Is there anyway you can make the armor look less battle ready? We're going in to be medical help, we should try to look it."

Cassie hesitates and looks back at him, noticing for the first time that Banner himself is wearing casual khakis and a basic shirt. Of course, if Banner gets shot all that'll happen to him is a drastic transition in to a giant green rage fueled monster. If Cassie gets shot she'll end up bloody and in need of quite a bit of her own healing magic. She considers pointing at that they are playing this situation with slightly different risks, but thinks better of it.

With a nod, Cassie strips off the top layer of her armor and stores it in her gear bag. This leaves her legs still protected in her armor with her arms exposed. Her feet are encased in her combat boots but she doubts anyone will look at her feet. Besides, even if they do, the boots won't look too unusual in this part of the world aside from the fact that they're high quality.

"This is a part of Africa where Apartheid didn't occur so much and I'm a blonde white girl," Cassie points out. "Inconspicuousness isn't something I'm going to be able to pull off." Banner acknowledges this with a small nod and they hike the rest of the way in to the city towards the building holding the Red Cross group.

As soon as they reach the more built up populated area Cassie feels herself go on edge, and it's the complete lack of civilian presence that does it. There's no panic in the streets. There are no _people_ in the streets and the whole place is eerily silent. By flicking and changing the parameters of her vision Cassie can see that every window for floors and floors is shuttered or otherwise blocked off.

With a gesture she disguises as a nervous brush of her hair, Cassie activates her communication unit. "Something is very wrong," she murmurs. "Sense recon is telling me that absolutely everyone for approximately a mile within the capital has either evacuated or been silenced. I can't detect any movement, hostile or otherwise but this can't be good."

"Agreed," Sam's voice sounds in her ears.

Banner dips his head to cover his mouth as he speaks. "Do you have any ideas on what might be going on?" he asks.

"None," Cassie says with a shake of her head. "The last time I was in a populated place this quite Chronos had the dream god Morpheus but the entire island of Manhattan to sleep so he could storm the city and annihilate Olympus while the gods were fighting the storm Titan. About forty of us demigods and some of the Hunters of Artemis took charge of protecting the city. A lot of people died."

A rush of fuzzy sound comes over the line that Cassie thinks is a sigh but she can't identify who it's coming from. "Just out of curiosity," Stark's voice says. "When exactly did the entirety of Manhattan become the battlefield for an entire pantheon of gods?"

"August of 2009," Cassie replies succinctly. "I was seventeen. Maybe if you're nice to me I'll tell you about it some time. Meanwhile this entire place is silent as the grave and that is the definition of not good." At that moment Cassie is seriously regretting taking off the top layer of her armor to blend in better. Her armor might be more conspicuous, but it's also definitely safer.

With that in mind Cassie summons her quiver by twisting the charm on her necklace, her only concession to Banner's concerned glance being to keep the weapon slung over her back instead of in her hands. For a moment she stands completely still, letting her senses filter out the normal input she gets and focusing in on the part of her that senses vitality and health. That's when she realizes that this part of the city isn't just silent. Its dead.

The certainty of her new discovery hits her like a sledgehammer to the gut, and Cassie's speaking from experience with that comparison. For a moment she can't breath, the world spins and dissolves before reforming and the oppressive force of the death surrounding her physically bends her over at the knees. Part of her wants to throw up and the other part wants to run away and not one singular iota of her being wants her to stay where she is and go further in to this city where no one besides her or Bruce is alive.

Speaking of Bruce, he's calling her name in concern and Steve is echoing that sound down the communication link in her ear. "I'm okay," Cassie manages, willing everyone involved to move past the fact that her voice is shaking and her breath is a harsh rattle. "Or I will be I swear." She tips her head back and focuses on the feeling of the sun on her skin, letting the energy and power of it absorb in to her blood. The feeling of dizziness and the nauseous twists in her stomach relax. "I think you can all give up on the sneaking or any kind of tactical approach," she says in to her comm link.

"Are you sure?" Natasha says with sharp concern and suspicion. "How can you tell it's safe."

For a moment Cassie fights the insane urge to laugh. "Easy," she says. "There's no one within a mile alive to shoot at you."

The line crackles again and Cassie has a feeling she knows what's coming before a single person at the other end of it speaks a word. Sure enough, it's Tony who speaks. "Yeah well that still doesn't answer Little Red's question Sunspot," Stark says flippantly. "How can you tell?"

And Cassie knows. She knows that flippancy and sarcasm are Stark's weapons and defenses. It's how he forms a wall between him and what they all do. Between him and the rest of the world. He deflects things and brushes them away publicly to try to let himself make them as minimal in his own head as he's making them out loud. However, surrounded by the force of the death of way must be hundreds of people Cassie's in no mood to handle it gracefully.

"You wanna know how I can tell," she spits down the line. "Fine." With that she focuses her mind, drawing the energy and power of the sunshine in to her body until her atoms have charged to the point where they feel really split. Then she channels that force and dissolves out of existence before reforming in the basement of the abandoned government building that the Red Cross had been supposed to have set up in.

Inside Cassie can see the sully set up skeleton of an actual medical center. There are cots and I.V bags set up at intervals. Folding desks and chairs are spaces around the basement and Cassie can see stockpiles of food and blankets along with medical gear and other miscellaneous supplies used for vaccination and care. Cassie's appeared in a single shaft of light streaming in through a partially blocked window and the cement blocks used to build the basement have done a good job of keeping out the heat.

There are dead bodies scattered throughout the space. They're cold, silent, and still and once more Cassie has to fight down the use to be sick or pass out. She fights it back and reins her supernatural senses further in the way she has to if she ever goes to the hospital morgue. Singular human death in her proximity is one thing. Mass death surrounding her is another. Apollo was a god of light and life and healing. Death was the antithesis. Frankly it was a small miracle to Cassie that Will and Nico were in love.

With her senses penned in Cassie steps forward and grips the back of the shirt of the closest body. She drags it backwards with her in to the shaft of light, doing her utmost to avoid looking down at the person's face. At the last moment she breaks her own rule and sees the face of a young man, a boy really. His eyes are shut and there's no blood or outward sign of harm. He could be sleeping apart from the fact that his heart is still and his body is cold.

It takes an effort, but Cassie manages to wrench her gaze away and dissolves on the spot. She allows her senses to drag her along the sound waves of Tony's voice and reappears barely feet in front of him. The others are assembled along with him but Cassie doesn't look at any of them, including Steve as she drops the body at Stark's feet. If the scene is a little dramatic, well Cassie really doesn't give a damn.

"There," she spits out, glaring daggers at Stark. "Look."

She moves her gaze deliberately from one person to the next. Rhodes looks sad though resigned, the image of a man who had seen too many people die to young. Sam is beginning to look angry and Barton appears calm apart from the fact that his bow has moved from being slung over his back to being gripped in his hand. Natasha gives nothing away apart from a minuscule tick in her jaw. Bucky is unreadable and Steve-. Steve looks a little like how she feels, nauseous and cold with shock.

Cassie points down at the body. "I can feel that," she grinds out. "For almost a mile around the capital the entire city is _dead._ And I can feel it like a gigantic twisting pit in my stomach. _That's_ how I can tell."

This is when the mission changes from peace restoration, to reconnaissance and clean up. None of the locals come forward to claim any of the dead or share their burial traditions so Cassie takes it upon herself to carry out whatever funeral arrangements she can come up with. Every team member with a sealable suite or super serum at their disposal takes up the job of retrieving bodies from the surrounding buildings, verifying death, and wrapping them in whatever blankets or sheets they can find.

Natasha, Barton, and Sam retreat further out in to the surrounding area to cary out the reinstitution of the government they had come to find. Banner and Cassie together decided early that anyone without the use of air scrubbers or genetically superior immune systems should stay outside. The fact that none of the dead show any signs of outward harm likely means that whatever killed them was either completely supernatural or some kind of aerosolized poison. Because the bodies are dead Cassie can't tell and Bruce needs time to get a test result they can't be sure which means that proceeding with caution is their safest bet.

After everything is cleared out, Cassie performs the most comprehensive multicultural funeral right she can possibly think of and focuses the sun to create a mass pyre. The people here aren't demigods, and the sheets and blankets aren't burial shrouds, but it's the best Cassie can do for the poor deceased souls here. Maybe now they will at least be able to pass on to whichever afterlife they believed in a little bit faster. Steve runs through a few Catholic prayers in a quiet voice as well.

Bucky shudders as the ceremonial flame burns, the bodies vanishing in to the smoke without scent or ash. "All the burning bodies," he murmurs. "I just remembered- concentration camps."

There's nothing to say to that so nobody tries. Even Stark who has never been able to keep his mouth shut under any circumstances doesn't have a smart remark to make. He doesn't speak at all until his suite and JARVIS have finished analyzing several blood samples. "Well the chemical breakdown of the compound used isn't anything I've ever seen used before but from what I can tell based on structural similarities it's some kind of quickly dispersed aerosolized neurotoxin." Stark's helmeted head turns to Bucky. "He wasn't wrong about the concentration camp comparison. The closest match JARVIS can find to this is the kind of chemical used in Nazi gas chambers altered and refined to break down and act more quickly to leave no traces and ensure that the air is breathable."

Steve is looking down at the street appraisingly and without speaking to tell them what he's considering he drives the edge of his shield in to the ground, breaking away the earth and cracking through the surface until he reaches a sewer line beneath. "There," he says. "Plumbing and sewer lines connected to every building in the area. HYDRA must have pumped the gas in through the system."

"And you're sure it's HYDRA?" Cassie checks. She doesn't doubt Steve's words or his surety, but if they're dealing with this new incarnation of violent Nazis Cassie wants there to be no shred of doubt or misunderstanding of the situation. The look of in Steve's eyes is like broken glass, jaggedly focused and wickedly unyieldingly sharp.

"It's them," Bucky says tonelessly. "HYDRA wants you to know they're powerful. They orchestrated a scenario to draw everyone here. They wanted us to see this and know that there was nothing we could have done to stop it. More than that they want the world to see that we couldn't stop them."

Rhodes tips his head. "How can you be sure about any of that?" He sounds like he desperately hopes that Barnes' is wrong but knows in the back of his mind that he's not. Numbly, Cassie wishes she could still hold on to that vague denial too. As it is, she doesn't doubt for a second that Bucky is right. She grew up with Annabeth Chase, she understands malicious ruthlessness to prove a point in war.

When Bucky speaks next his voice isn't so much flat as it is completely dead. "It's what they could have had me do."

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I know it's been a while since I updated this story but I've been swamped with school work lately. I wrote in this mission because I wanted Cassie more involved with the team and more of an equal member as opposed to just the medical help and researcher. Besides, I'm catching this story up with the events of Age of Ultron which opens with the team fighting HYDRA so I needed to keep them a serious and continuous enemy. Also I was pretty tired while writing this and had to do it in different chunks fairly far apart. I have re-read it to try to make everything line up smoothly but it's possible I missed some details or contradicted myself. If any of you lovely readers sees anything like that please point it out to me so I can fix it and post a better version of the chapter. Anyway, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: Nothing. Nothing is what I own. Nothing is also the exact amount I could be sued for.**

Christmas and holiday cheer is a little thin on the ground in the tower that year. Stark sweeps himself and Pepper off to an island somewhere with no internet or cell phone reception and tells the people at his company that if they can't figure out how to survive running the company for a week without the two of them, they can expect to no longer have a job when the holidays are over. Banner is dragged along with them and as far as Cassie can tell he's dropped off at a resort nearby for some enforced relaxation. Rhodes has family to spend the holiday with and Sam himself actually has a few scraps of it as well. Barton and Natasha don't say where either of them are going, but they both pull of seamless disappearing acts within a day of each other.

The Jackson's extend an invitation to Cassie and Steve for Christmas dinner. Upon hearing this, the two exchange quick glances. Steve's eyes are wide and hopeful and fill with gratitude when Cassie asks down the phone line if Sally and Paul will mind if they bring along Bucky. To Sally's immense credit, she barely bats an eyelash before insisting that all three of them make an appearance.

Bucky takes the news of his extended invitation and frowns for a moment. Then Steve glares at him and says "you're coming. For this and other holiday stuff" which settles the matter. There is absolutely no way to stand against a determined Steve Rogers. If she has to guess by the well practiced though unfeeling muttering Bucky does, Cassie would say that that's one thing about Steve that's always been true.

By the time they hit December twentieth both men are going stir crazy with no one around to train with but each other and the equipment in the gym. They come back from a three hour workout still both tense and with nothing else to fall back on Cassie commits herself to vicious levels of holiday spirit. She commands the both of them to go shower and then bundles them both out the door with orders to return with the largest Christmas tree they can fit in their living room.

The next thing to arrange is lights and ornaments and Cassie dedicates herself to late season holiday decoration shopping in Manhattan. It is in all honesty one of the most terrifying experiences Cassie has ever had. The crowding levels are so extreme that it's only through careful deployment of elbow strikes that she manages to collect what she needs for a holiday extravaganza and get to the cash register to pay for everything. It's also possible she kneecaps an aggressive looking soccer mom but frankly no one can prove it.

Anyway, in the end she gets herself home without causing any permanent damage to herself or others and begins the frankly enormous job of untangling garlands shaped like golden stars and silver snowflakes. She's in the middle of testing out strands of lights to make sure she doesn't have to deal with returning any that malfunction when JARVIS decides to kick on and play some Christmas music.

Cassie is almost sure that the artist is Michael Bubble. She should probably be more able to tell given her father, but frankly she isn't. Out of all of her siblings, Austin and Lee were the two who had had the most musical ability and paid the most attention to it. Well Lee is dead and Austin is home with him mortal mother which isn't something Cassie is willing to interrupt to ask about Michael Bubble and Christmas songs.

Steve and Bucky stumble back in to the apartment balancing an enormous evergreen between them about an hour after Cassie came in with all of her shopping. For her own piece of mind Cassie resolves not to ask a few specific potentially important questions in this situation. The first is where the tree might have actually come from. The second concerns how exactly the tree plus two fairly bulky super soldiers in puffy winter coats managed to fit inside the tower elevator.

Yeah.

Cassie decides those are avenues she'd rather not pursue.

It's almost Christmas, sue her... Or rather don't.

"I made a tree stand," Bucky announces, indicating what looks to Cassie like a large metal ring looped over the shoulder of his flesh and blood arm. His metal arm is the one he's using to balance his half of the tree. Steve is supporting the rest of it and managing to look only slightly annoyed by the fact that an evergreen branch keeps springing up to poke him in the face.

The whole picture the two of them make makes her smile and Cassie retrieves the improvised tree stand from Bucky before arranging it in the space she's cleared in the living room. Bucky and Steve set the tree in place and Cassie perches on the counter top to tell them when it looks like it's at the right angle to her. This process takes more time than it probably should because Steve and Bucky keep on taking steps back to contribute their own opinions and as it turns out, there is almost absolutely no orientation in which a Christmas tree will look perfect to three different perspectives. It's a complex balancing act but the combination of three different sets of instincts regulated with above average spatial orientation has everything set and locked in place eventually.

The Christmas music Cassie doesn't have the knowledge to correctly identify drifts around them. Cassie wraps the lower branches with lights and garlands and Bucky and Steve handle the branches higher up. At least, Bucky helps out for about twenty minutes before vanishing, presumably back to his apartment while the upper branches are left entirely to the mercy of Steve's artistic eye.

"How are we going to get the top?" Cassie wonders as they both take a step back to examine what they've done so far. "Stark has to have a ladder around here somewhere doesn't he? The building has like a hundred floors."

Steve tips his head back and forth squinting and then seems to come to a decision. "We can do it," he states. "Come here, and bring some lights." He holds out an arm beckoning and Cassie goes. She has a pretty good idea of what Steve's thinking so she isn't surprised when he puts his hands on her waist says "ready?" and then boosts her straight up so that she's on his shoulders. "Better?"

"Almost," Cassie says. "Just hold still and grab behind my knees okay?"

Steve agrees and Cassie delicately shifts herself until she can balance one foot on each of his shoulders. She stands up carefully and finds her balance and Steve helps by looping his arms back to brace her legs. From this height Cassie can reach the entire height of the tree and on her instructions Steve moves slowly around the circumference so that she can drape the lights through all of the branches.

Bucky comes back in before they're done, carrying a box under his arm which he places on the couch. He doesn't react in the slightest to the fact that Cassie is currently standing directly on top of Steve's shoulders without wobbling or tipping at all. Excellent balance and highly perilous high stress rope training courses at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter really have given Cassie an excellent sense of balance and an injection of Super Serum means Steve hasn't experienced muscle fatigue in about seventy years.

"Hey Buck," Steve calls to his friend but doesn't turn his head. This is something Cassie appreciates as any such movement could have very possibly tipped her on to the floor. The fall probably wouldn't hurt her at all, but Steve might have felt bad about it later if it had happened. "Could you grab a garland and pass it up to Cassie? We can't move much."

A quick glance down shows her that Bucky is complying and she reaches down with one hand to grip the proffered garland of golden stars. Bucky then pushes back against her arm to help her stand up straight again and Steve moves back around the tree. Cassie has just strung up the last star and is about to hop down to the ground when Bucky stops her.

"Wait a minute," he says. "Don't come down yet. I picked up some things." Then he crosses over to the box he had come in with and opens it. Cassie can't see very well from her angle but she focuses her vision and manages to see that the box is full of beautiful old fashioned ornaments. The most prominent of these is a large star wrought in bronze and glass and Cassie let's out a quiet breath of admiration.

Bucky passes the star to Steve first who examines it carefully. "This was mine," he says in shocked surprise. "My mother inherited it. It was one of the only things we didn't sell during the depression. I thought it ended up donated to the Smithsonian with the rest of my stuff." He looks closely at Bucky, weighing the ornament in his hands as Cassie leans down using a hand on the top of his head for balance. "Did you rob the Smithsonian?"

"Only a storage container in their archives," Bucky says with a shrug. "It's not like I dismantled an active and highly public exhibit or anything."

Cassie can't see Steve's reaction because of the angle but she's willing to bet money he rolls his eyes. He moves again, shifting one arm back to support her again as Cassie stands up straight. With the arm not wrapped behind her, Steve passes the star up to her. The weight of it is heavy in her hand and the glass and metal is smooth beneath her fingers as she sets this small surviving piece of Steve's personal history in a stable cradle of branches at the crown of the tree.

She pats Steve's hand. "Okay."

"Down?" Steve checks.

"Uh huh."

There isn't actually too much Steve can do to help given the angle but he does his best to help guide her back around to where she's sitting on his shoulder. Once she's there she slides lightly back to the ground and Steve loops his arms around her waist to tuck her back against his chest. His hands are chilly against her hips through the thin fabric of her sweater. Cassie covers them with her own hands without thinking to share a little warmth and feels his grip squeeze gently in a non-verbal sign of appreciation.

Steve hates being cold. Falling in to a hypothermia induced coma and being frozen and buried alive under several metric tons of ice and snow for seventy years would have that effect on a person. If it's grey out Cassie isn't exactly fond of snow and freezing temperatures either.

They hang the rest of the ornaments over the next hour or so and JARVIS keeps the Christmas music playing. It must take all of his advanced programming and internet savvy powers to avoid repeating the same six songs over and over again but he does pull it off and Cassie is mightily impressed. A very small number of the songs require a little bit of explaining, but for the most part the playlist of the holidays seems to have been established pre-1945 and not changed since. What has changed isn't actually different enough to matter.

Overall the evening is, for lack of a better word, cosy. That makes the evening rare, and the rarity makes the evening incredibly valuable. Cassie refuses to say the value is intrinsic because to some people this kind of evening is completely normal. Cassie however, has never once in her lifetime had an evening where the one and only thing she had to worry about was how to decorate a Christmas tree with her boyfriend and his best friend.

The next few days pass in enforced quiet and relaxation. She calls this quiet and relaxation 'enforced' because when she tries to duck in to her office to consult a file she finds the door securely and automatically locked and no amount of pushing, shoving, pulling, lock picking, Mercurial magic, or begging JARVIS can possibly open it. A small bit of investigation reveals that the labs and the office Steve sometimes uses to make calls to members of government on the Avengers' behalf have been likewise sealed for the duration of the Stark decreed Holiday Season.

Bucky quietly vanishes to his own apartment on Christmas Eve and Steve uses (or perhaps orchestrates) this increased privacy to set up a smaller holiday dinner for the two of them. "I thought we should do something that was just for the two of us," he says, going very slightly pink along the back of his neck. "I never really celebrated most holidays but Christmas... I always loved Christmas."

Those words as much as anything else have Cassie leaning up to kiss him. This dinner is about sharing something that they've both had reason to love separately and making a memory or even a tradition that they can share together. Steve brings a hand up to brush gently along her shoulder and up to cup her jaw before breaking the kiss so he can finish plating up dinner before anything burns or goes cold. After noticing that Steve himself is wearing slacks and a collared shirt Cassie ducks in to their room and puts on one of the few nice dresses she happens to actually own and sends an infrequent prayer of thanks up to Aphrodite that this one happens to be a deep shade of Christmas green.

The moment of near speechless awe she gets from Steve in reaction to the extra five minutes of effort is well worth it.

Dinner is delicious and Cassie can't help asking when and where exactly Steve learned how to cook. Cassie herself has a very limited culinary skill set as a result of living with dinning halls for the entirety of her adolescence and much of her more adult life. Between childhood, the depression, and the war Cassie just can't figure out when Steve would have had the time.

"I learned when I got out of the ice," Steve says. "SHIELD gave me some time off right after the Battle of New York and I had time to realize that food could be a whole lot better than it used to be. I used to have different stretches of downtime between missions so picking something up that didn't need scheduled lessons made more sense than anything else." He shrugs. "I didn't want to see the pictures either. I'd rather do something self-taught."

"You know," Cassie muses out loud. "I can't ever remember actually having a hobby. Before I turned eight I was too young to have one. I liked listening to audiobooks but I didn't want to read for fun because of my dyslexia. Then when I got older I trained for fourteen hours a day. Then I went to school."

Steve doesn't try to say anything in response to that and Cassie is glad. It's her life. Talking about it isn't a bid for sympathy. Instead they finish eating and Cassie insists on clearing the plates because Steve had cooked. She hums a little to the music JARVIS is playing softly over the speakers as she does and when she turns she sees Steve watching her speculatively.

She braces her hands on the counter and looks up at him. "What?"

For a second he seems to consider if he actually wants to say whatever he's thinking of but Steve's never been one for biting his tongue. "You said once that your father was the god of music. It was why you understood rhythm, why you can slow down my heart rate when it wants to skip every time I see you." Cassie feels her face flush a little but waits until he's done with whatever he wants to say. She doesn't have any idea what she would say anyway. "Can you dance?"

Cassie blinks at him like a startled owl for a second. "Uh, in theory I think. I tried once or twice at parties. I went to a few on Mt. Olympus. Once after the Titan War and there was a thing with Atlas once. They had the nine Muses play." Strains of a half-remembered melody brush through her mind at the thought and it makes Cassie smile without thinking. "Hearing them play is incredible. Everyone hears something different according to what they want or need to hear most. I didn't trip or step on anything or knock anyone over so..." she trails off. "I guess yeah. According to some things I can dance."

Steve smiles and she isn't sure if it's because of the way she just rambled or because of her actual words. Regardless he holds out a hand to her, and there is something in his eyes that is happy, and sad, and nostalgic, and new all at once. "Teach me how?"

That makes Cassie pause. She's been to the Smithsonian and seen Steve's exhibit and that happened long before she ever met the man in person or started dating him. Part of that exhibit is a transcript and a corner audio booth where they have a pair of headphones and the ability to hear the last cockpit recording from Steve before the plane went down.

She knows what dancing means.

"Are you sure?" she asks calmly, keeping her voice as steady as possible.

Steve nods once in decision and extends his hand farther. "I'm sure," he says. "In my life there's this before and after. I never danced before. But this," he makes a small gesture around their newly decorated apartment, to her and the tree and the well used kitchen and the window that overlooks the city. "This is after and now and I hope the future." The hand extended to her twitches just slightly. "I'd like to know how to dance with you."

At that Cassie nods and takes his outstretched hand, letting Steve pull her in against his chest. "Its not so hard," she says, her voice coming out soft and gentle as she adjusts her hand in his to a proper hold. For all his lack of experience, Steve's other hand comes up and around her to the small of her back. "Especially when the music's slow. Just- just hold me like you are doing, and move a little to the music." She has to tip her head back to look him in the eye, especially standing this close. "I don't think it has to be any more complicated than that."

He doesn't say anything in response but the arm around her back tightens a little and Cassie loops her arm closer around his neck. Her fingers brush against he soft strands of hair at the back of his head and her palm presses fully against his skin. The beat of his heart echoes and pulses below both of her hands at his neck and wrist and privately Cassie thinks its a steadier rhythm than any song.

One of Steve's thumbs travels in a small arch over her back as they sway back and forth and Cassie shivers closer to him as Steve bends his head closer to hers. "I'm still worried I'll step on you," he says with a tiny smile.

Cassie returns the smile. "Should I stand on yours on purpose?" she suggests, mimicking his hushed volume. "It'd probably take the pressure off."

Steve's smile expands to a grin and in the next moment Cassie finds herself lifted off the ground and moved a few inches forward so that her bare feet are balanced on his shoes. It's harder to dance that way but it makes the whole endeavor feel silly and fun and just a little bit wonderful. They give up entirely on dancing when they try to move too far and accidentally stumble in to the kitchen island and after that the night dissolves in to kisses, warmth, and being as close to each other as possible and Cassie decides that if this is the beginning of a new tradition, then it's one she wants to perpetuate for as many years as possible.

They wake up slowly on Christmas morning and eventually join Bucky in the main room in front of the tree for a breakfast of Bagels and salmon and thick cream cheese that Bucky had apparently procured the night before. This is also when they exchange gifts and Cassie is surprised, though pleased to get one from Bucky. It's a beautifully carved wooden hair comb and she knows without being told that Bucky made it himself. Her gift to him is a small chip that can be built in to his metallic arm which Leo assures her will make Bucky able to sense temperature and texture through the artificial limb.

Bucky hands Steve something wrapped in official brown archive paper. This wrapping makes Cassie inclined to believe that this present may also have been liberated from the Smithsonian archives. This inclination is proved correct when Steve unwraps the package to find a sketchbook. It looks a little worse for wear, but as Steve opens the pages and thumbs through them in a state of near shock Cassie can see that all of the drawings inside are completely intact. "I hauled this thing through half of Europe during the war," Steve says. Then he pulls Bucky in to the kind of one armed hug all men seamed to know how to do instinctually. "Thank you."

Steve's present to Bucky is similarly historical and coincidentally also involves drawing. Steve's done a whole series of pictures showing the development of the Brooklyn skyline over time. They're incredibly detailed and Bucky smiles and thanks him. It's the second smile Cassie's seen on his face that morning. It might be a record for the duration of the time Cassie's known him.

Her gift to Steve is a newly designed layer of armor that can be worn under his suite in cold weather. It'll stop almost any weapon and is completely temperature controlled. Leo, Calypso, and Jake Mason had all appreciated the challenge to produce the design she specified. "It'll keep you warm, which you like. And safe, which I like," she explains. He responds by kissing her with a quick thank you and handing over his own present. It's a silver bracelet containing the symbols of both Mercury and Apollo side by side. There's also a stylized Avengers 'A' and a miniature rendering of a familiar red, white, and blue shield.

"It's beautiful," she tells him with a smile. She holds out her left hand, figuring it's the better choice since she's right handed. Steve obligingly fastens the clasp around her wrist with deft fingers and the charms give a muted clink as they tap together. The bracelet is lighter than she thought it might be and the links and charms catch the light coming in through the window.

The metal is unfamiliar to her. Hazel or Leo could probably tell her what it's made out of, but Cassie doesn't care. This is a beautiful gift from her boyfriend celebrating the first Christmas they've had together and she'll wear it for that reason alone. She'll have to think of somewhere safe to put it whenever she operates.

Later in the afternoon they present themselves at the Jackson-Blowfiss apartment at the time Sally specified to Cassie. Percy and Annabeth are both there taking a turn to occupy Rosie with the proffering of various holiday themed coloring books. Frank is sitting in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest and his knees hunched in to his chest. As ever the poor guy looks too big for the space and seems to be trying incredibly hard not to knock over anything. Hazel is talking to Sally about the recipe she used to produce the pot of Shrimp Gumbo that is her contribution to today's meal.

It takes Bucky and Steve some convincing to assure both men that the apartment really is supposed to be _this_ blue. Steve warms up to the idea a little more quickly having already witnessed the azure and cerulean explosion that had been Percy's birthday party back in August. It takes them a little longer to talk Bucky around to the idea, but after being played a rendition of the song "Blue Christmas" and hearing the Jackson's family explanation he sits down and stops looking at the dish of blue jelly beans on the coffee table like he thinks they might poison him.

No one can convince him to eat any of the blue food until Rosie approaches. Percy's sister comes armed with pigtails, a gap toothed smile, and one of Sally Jackson's blue chocolate chip cookies in one hand and a book of Transformers themed stickers in the other. By the end of the interaction, Bucky has eaten the cookie and stoically sitting with his arm extended as Rosie critically studies the metal plating and covers each joint mark with stickers of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.

James Buchanan Barnes. The Winter Soldier. World War II veteran and longest surviving P.O.W in military history.

Bested by a four year-old.

This moment is priceless.

Christmas passes peacefully after that. Rosie seems to decide categorically that she likes Bucky and ends up falling asleep half on top of him and half sprawled across the arm of the chair. Bucky doesn't seem bothered by it, though slightly afraid to move in case he wakes her up. Sally takes advantage of the peace and quiet by taking a nap on the couch once Christmas dinner is over. Cassie and Hazel claim a patch of carpet and play through several rounds of a card game called Spit. Steve gets drawn in to a Round-Robin chess tournament with Annabeth, Frank, and Paul.

New Years comes around a week later and is a decidedly more raucous and festive affair. It's completely Tony Stark organized (not even Pepper had been permitted involvement to mitigate the party spirit) and takes place on a rooftop too high to feel safe when seen in conjunction with the amount of alcohol being served. Actually, most of the actual Avengers team has issues with reaching proper levels of intoxication.

Bucky, like Steve, has Super Serum and all the metabolic foibles that come with may not have been truly Russian for quite a long time but she holds her alcohol like one. Barton's spent too many years of his professional career matching her intake and the way he drinks shows it. Banner doesn't drink to avoid unforeseen problems with the Other Guy and Cassie is willing to bet that Stark lost the ability to get drunk like a regular person at least fifteen years ago. Pepper and Maria Hill have both spent too long competing in their respective boy's clubs and absolutely crushing their adversaries to not be able to hold a drink.

The state of things shifts slightly after Pepper insists on introducing her to a woman named Dr. Helen Cho who's working on developing a sort of cradle that can asses tissue damage and repair it with synthetic materials. The conversation is fascinating and Cassie kind of wishes she had a way to take notes, or even to just record what they've said. In the end they make plans to talk on the phone and arrange a meeting to discuss things further.

Cassie is absorbed enough in the topic that she doesn't notice that Thor has arrived until after Dr. Cho has been summoned away by representatives from a group she explains provides a sizable chunk of the funding for her research that doesn't come from Stark. Thor's presence seems to have provided a breath of relief for Bucky and Steve by distracting most of the big wig government types. He's also handed over a flask of Asgardian mead to Steve to be shared with Bucky.

The presence of the mead allows those with super metabolisms to loosen up a little. Bucky smiles more between eleven and one in the morning than Cassie thinks she's ever seen him do thus far. Thor sweeps Jane Foster in to a complicated looking Asgardian dance Cassie is about sixty percent certain he wouldn't have attempted to do sober. However, she doesn't know Thor well enough to really make that judgement.

Steve doesn't get drunk, but he does get remarkably more comfortable with the concept of public displays of affection. It starts by him finding her in the crowd and towing her around the room by the hand as they each get drawn in to conversations with different groups of people. Half an hour later he has an arm looped around her waist and pulling her incrementally closer by the minute. By midnight Steve has spotted an empty chair and claimed it for himself before Cassie finds herself pulled down on top of him.

"Hold on, hold on," she laughs. "I refuse to elbow you in the face by accident." It takes her a few moments to arrange all of her limbs and ends up sitting sideways across Steve's lap with her back against one arm of the chair and her feet propped on the other.

"Comfy?" Steve asks with a lazy sort of grin. His right arm slides between her back and the arm of the chair and his palm falls warmly on a strip of skin revealed by a cut out in the fabric of the dress Rachel had bought and shipped to her as a Christmas gift. The Dare Family was evidently spending the Holiday in Paris. She hadn't been sure about wearing it but Steve had had to stop and swallow a few times the first time he had caught site of the patches of skin the garment revealed, and as with the Christmas Eve Dinner Dress, the reaction had made the effort worth it.

Cassie looks up at him with a smile. "Hmm. For someone with your muscle density you really are remarkably comfortable as a living chair." She loops her arms around his neck and uses the leverage to pull herself a little farther in to his chest. Her dress and Steve's hand both shift so that his palm is under the fabric and pressing against her skin. His fingers skim minutely up and down over her ribcage.

Her comment earns her a small smile and Steve's eyes are warm like a summer sky as he looks down at her. "Well evidently I live to serve."

The countdown to midnight begins and the kiss the they manage to share once it reaches zero and the ball drops in Times Square is well worth the implicit cliche. Steve seems even less inclined to let her go more than about six inches away from him after it happens than he was beforehand and doesn't so much make their excuses to the generally assembly as he does lead her to the door forcibly shifting people out of the way as they go. Cassie follows at his side, smothering laughter the whole way.

That night is a good one.

Unfortunately the morning is a little less good. In fact, 'less good' is probably an understatement. Colossally fucked over from basically start to finish is probably a better description.

Because of course it is.

The universe does not allow Cassie to have purely nice things. Sooner or later, everything will come out in a balance. She knows this and accepts it

...

...

But, COME ON!

Everything is okay for about the first twenty minutes. During those twenty minutes Cassie and Steve manage to wake up and Cassie makes her way in to the kitchen to make them both some form of morning beverage, possible coffee while Steve gets changed to head up to the gym. Cassie is considering joining him but knows she needs to make a more extensive patrol of the city later and figures her daily exercise will get covered then.

Steve joins her in the kitchen wearing sweatpants and a tee shirt with a pair of tennis shoes just as her phone buzzes with a new text. She pulls it out and views the message. "Huh," she says with a frown.

"What?" Steve asks, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the pot and inhaling the steam before taking a swig.

"Messages from Hill and Pepper. Both telling me to turn on a news station." She turns to face Steve. "I don't know what it's about but if they're both texting me it can't be good can it?"

At that moment Steve's own phone starts buzzing in his pocket and he pulls it out, examining the screen. His own forehead knits in to a frown mirroring the one on Cassie's face as he reads the message. "I just got the same thing from Sam." He scoops up the remote from the kitchen counter and turns on the television which immediately flashes up C-SPAN and Steve turns up the volume.

The two of them watch the people on screen for approximately ninety seconds before understanding the point of all of their friends texting them. "Stark's parties apparently need better non-disclosure agreements," Cassie mutters as no fewer than six people on screen debate the ethics and examples set by Captain America, the national icon of humility and honor personified, and symbol of American patriotism having (for lack of a better word) a sex life in the twenty-first century.

The top right hand corner of the screen is filled with a picture of the two of them together. The image isn't anything inappropriate. It's just of the two of them standing together at the party the night before. Steve has one arm draped around her and is looking down at her as she talks with Banner, following along with the conversation as best he could without medical training. Cassie's pretty sure Banner had been clearing up some questions she had had on certain areas of nuclear chemistry but that doesn't really matter.

Squinting a bit proves that the picture is actually slightly blurred around the edges. Maybe Stark should just confiscate all of the phones after the drinking started like she had heard some more understanding parents did with car keys at high school parties. Unfortunately, this slight blurring doesn't actually do anything to help obscure the details of her face or more importantly her identity.

There's a loud thump from behind her as Steve drops his forehead straight down to band against the kitchen counter. Cassie winces in sympathetic pain but Steve doesn't lift his head. "Why is this news?" he groans in to the polished marble. "The United States has been engaged in a war overseas for over a decade, the entire city of Detroit is bankrupt, the federal government actually went through a gridlock over the national budget, terrorism, racism, and homophobia are still running rampant and _who I'm dating_ is still. In. The. News."

"It's ridiculous," Cassie agrees with a drawn out sigh, rubbing a hand over her face. "On the bright side, maybe a Kardashian will announce a pregnancy and the media will move on."

Steve lifts his head an looks at her with tired eyes. "I still don't think I actually know what a Kardashian is."

Cassie procures the remote from Steve using a long reach and begins skipping through channels looking for a program that isn't discussing her relationship. Eventually she stops on BBC World News which is instead talking about the first televised address to the public for this year from the Archbishop of Canterbury. "Well," Cassie says with consideration after a few minutes of listening. "It's not exactly multiculturally ground breaking, but they aren't talking about us, Duchess Kate, or the new Prince George so I'm willing to call it a win."

The expression on Steve's face is still some mix of confused, frustrated, annoyed, and probably angry. Cassie gets up from her seat and props her elbows on the counter across from Steve. "Alright, talk to me."

Steve lets out a deep breath in a rush and looks up at her. "I _hate_ that this is an element of my life," he admits. "This... public invasiveness. I hate that I have to deal with it and I hate that you have to deal with it too just because you happen to be dating me."

Cassie tips her head to the side and reaches out to cover his hands with hers. He isn't fidgeting but he does have a white knuckle grip on the edge of the counter that Cassie doesn't like the look of for the counter's sake. Polished marble might be strong but she isn't sure its strong enough to stand up to a super soldier under mounting levels of anger and psychological stress. "A lot of your life was public before," she points out calmly. "Back in the forties I mean."

"Yeah but this is different," Steve mutters. "Then it was- It was by choice. It was traveling around and putting on a show or being on a news reel where I could see the camera. It was annoying but I always knew it was happening and I could decide not to be involved if I didn't want to be. And everything was about 'Captain America'," the way he says his own title very clearly puts it in quotations. "None of it was about... me."

She doesn't really know what to say about that so Cassie just grips his hand and brings them towards her to press a kiss against each knuckle. "I don't know how to fix this," she says honestly after a moment of quiet. " I can be here with you and help make a choice that the two of us agree on together about how to go forward with all of this. I can understand what you mean in theory about the press but my life has never been public the way yours has."

Steve doesn't respond verbally at first but gives her hands a small tug which Cassie takes as an invitation to join him on his side of the counter. She does this by taking the most expedient route and simply hauls herself up and over the marble and brings her hands up and over his shoulders. Steve's stands between her knees and lets his hands fall to her hips. "It's probably about to be," he warns. "Public I mean."

"Well people can look but they won't find very much on me," Cassie says. "Everything between age eight and twenty is going to be completely blocked off besides my school diplomas. Someone might find that my mother died and that my dad was nowhere to be found but nothing made the newspaper and I never went in to foster care so there's nothing to find there. I don't have any social media and everything I do for Stark is contract protected."

She leans up and places a kiss on his forehead. "We knew this might happen," she reminds him. She's trying to sound both cheerful and reassuringly bracing at the same time and isn't sure she's pulling either off.

In response Steve releases another gusty sigh and leans down to mimic her forehead kiss, leaving his chin resting on top of her head with his nose half-buried in her hair. "I know. I know." Cassie wraps him in a hug and just breaths in tandem with him for a few minutes. "I still don't like it," he mutters.

Well fair enough. Cassie doesn't like it either.

She finds she likes it even left as the day goes on. For as long as possible she stays inside and tries to occupy herself with household things that need to happen around the apartment. However, she is eventually faced with the reality of needing groceries, and hiding from a fight with no counter plan has never been her style. She does consider using her abilities to simply vanish from the living room and reappear in the frozen foods isle of the grocery store, but decides pretty quickly that she may as well just bight the bullet and get it over with. Cassie might live where she works but she refuses to stay cooped up there forever.

Steve grits his teeth and goes out for a run before she leaves. Watching how he handles the reporters is kind of funny. He absolutely refuses to make any kind of comment on Cassie or their relationship but he does deliver a decent speech on the need for better counter-terrorism measures and improvements in U.S relations abroad which is all the more impressive for being extemporaneous.

A couple of members of the press try to follow him and Cassie takes the opportunity to slip out and hail a cab to the grocery store. She still has a few questions shouted at her, but they're all on the way back in to the building and not out of it. She smiles at everyone pleasantly enough, waves once or twice, and makes a few well chosen comments on the perils of neglecting to have children vaccinated in this day and age.

Stark, Pepper, Hill, and possibly even Nick Fury must intervene and sic their media people and lawyers on the assembled press over the next few weeks because by the time Saint Patrick's day rolls around the paparazzi and reporters have all but completely disbanded and Cassie is able to make it out to a charity five-K run without being followed by people with cameras. Rachel doesn't run with her, but she does hand her a specially stylized green running shirt covered with a design of four leaf clovers.

Lately Rachel hasn't been around much and Cassie suspects the Prophet aspect of her life might have presented a bigger problem to a potential relationship than had originally been evident. The oracle isn't at all bitter about it though, and suggests introducing Reyna (who's in town for a visit and a break from leading the legion) to Steve and Bucky. The break is much needed and might some day soon become more permanent once Reyna is done training her chosen replacement, a ruthlessly efficient daughter of Nike named Victoria who's already been approved by the rest of the Senate.

Reyna and Cassie spend the run chatting about nothing overly important and finish the run in good time with energy to spare. Both girls could have gone more quickly had they wanted to, but it's occasionally nice to run like nothing is chasing you. They go back to the Tower for about half an hour and take turns in the shower before heading out to meet Rachel for burgers and milkshakes. Luckily Reyna has brought clean clothes along with her because she's at least four or five inches taller than Cassie is.

A phone call to Steve confirms that he's happy to meet a friend of hers for dinner that night and Cassie and Rachel spend the rest of the day showing Reyna the tourist spots around the city. At least, they show her the spots that aren't flooded with drunk college kids and exuberant crowds claiming Irish heritage. Gods only know if they actually have any of course, but Cassie will withhold judgement. After all, it's not like she has to work an E.R shift later where she'll have to handle all the alcohol fueled injuries that will surely present themselves.

Rachel wanders off to help make signs for a student protest Cassie isn't sure she actually cares about, but Rachel enjoys art in all forms and painting signs raging about various issues seems to appeal to her on an instinctual level. This leaves Reyna and Cassie with an hour to kill before dinner which they occupy with window shopping in the kinds of streets Pepper can certainly afford buying in, but Cassie still shies away from despite living at least half a year on her Stark sized paycheck. As they walk to the restaurant a drunk guy babbles at them in Spanish Cassie can't comprehend but would guess is distasteful. Still, she finds it funny when Reyna responds with a cold glare and a flow of easy and undoubtedly uncomplimentary response in the same language.

"He had some choice words about some of our physical attributes," Reyna informs her as the man slinks off and they gain a city block of distance. "I told him in no uncertain terms that we were not interested."

Cassie nods in appreciation and holds up a hand. "High five for the multilingual shut down."

Reyna sighs and is probably thinking about how she should have tried to make different friends during her teen years but gives her the high five anyway. She probably figures she's getting off easy on this because Percy or Leo would have forced her in to a fist bump and then done one of those mini explosion sounds and knowing their mutual friends as she does Cassie has to admit that she's probably right. Besides, when you were a demigod your friend options were limited. Especially if you aimed for friends who might have longevity.

They end up at a tapas restaurant to find Steve already seated and waiting in a quiet and mostly empty heated patio. He's apparently decided to bring Bucky along though how he did it is a mystery given that the man in question is managing to look both confused about how he got there and vaguely annoyed by the fact that it happened. Cassie can only assume that Steve deployed some mixture of earnest cajoling, wide-eyed pleading, and unadulterated brute force.

"Hey," Cassie greets, sliding in to the empty seat next to Steve. Reyna hesitates for a moment before taking the seat across from her and beside Bucky. She glances at him once to do a threat assessment which Cassie figures is fair because Bucky does the same thing out of the corner of his eye. Cassie smiles around at them all and figures it's time to make introductions "Reyna this is my boyfriend Steve."

Steve deploys a wide smile that is similar to his press smile though more realistic and reaches out to shake Reyna's hand. "Its good to meet you."

Reyna returns the shake and manages a small smile of her own. "Likewise. Cassie has mentioned you before."

"I hope good things," Steve says easily and then gestures to Bucky. "This is my best friend James Buchanan Barnes."

Bucky roles his eyes. "Why did you have to put in the Buchanan? I have never in my life introduced you as Steven Grant Rogers and frankly never plan to. There was literally no reason to throw in the Buchanan."

"Adding in the Buchanan is the only way it makes sense to other people when I call you Bucky," Steve replies sounding supremely unbothered. "It's not really a normal nickname."

"Much as I hate it I think most people know who we both are at this point," Bucky points out. "We have been on T.V kind of a lot lately."

Steve shrugs. "It seemed arrogant to assume."

'Whatever," Cassie cuts in. "Bucky this is Reyna. Reyna this is Bucky."

The two shake hands with the definitive air of two people sizing each other up. Cassie supposes neither of them can help it given that Bucky still maintains the habits of seventy years of training as the Winter Soldier and Reyna is the daughter of a highly military oriented goddess and has been the leader of an entire roman legion for nearly a decade now. "Does anyone ever call you Jamie?" Reyna asks with an attitude that is somewhere between military analysis and personal assessment.

Bucky narrows his eyes slightly before apparently deciding that answering the question will not in fact be used against him as a combat weakness. "Not that I can remember," he says evenly. "But given the seventy years of electric shock and exposure to untested drugs that doesn't necessarily mean very much."

Reyna raises her eyebrows slightly and tips her head in recognition. "Understood."

That's when a waiter comes over to take their order and manages to only stare at them in open mouthed shock for about fifteen seconds before scribbling down the entire contents of the menu and scurrying away to the kitchen. Cassie sympathizes. She, Steve, and Bucky have taken up a lot of screen time lately and their faces are probably recognizable. Adding Reyna probably hadn't helped anyone's comprehension.

"What exactly did we just order?" Bucky asks after the fact.

Cassie rescues a menu from the table next to theirs and flips it over to show the small written out story of the restaurant's founding. "Tapas," she says. "It's Spanish food. You order two or three small plates and that becomes your meal. Most of the time the whole table shares food around."

Bucky squints down at the list of food that he had apparently not tried reading before actually picking his dinner. "What's this?" he asks pointing at a menu item the name and description of which is written completely in Spanish.

Steve reaches for the menu to translate but surprisingly Reyna reaches over for it first and translates easily. "It's sliced ham with asparagus and goat cheese," she tells him, flicking her long dark braid back over her shoulder. "And the thing below that is dates stuffed with walnuts and wrapped in bacon," she shrugs. "I used to like it when I was little. It should be good."

"Are you Spanish Reyna?" Steve asks with polite interest.

Reyna turns back to look at him. "No I'm Puerto Rican, but the language and the food is mostly the same. By the way," she gestures to Steve. "Your uniform looks a lot like the Puerto Rican flag. Someone may want to look at that." Steve mutters something about not having been given any design input and Reyna moves on. She hesitates for a moment but then seems to figure she might as well go all in and shrugs. "But if you're talking about godly parent mine is Roman. Bellona."

The first stage of their food arrives so they stop talking until the waiter leaves. They all dig in but Bucky still manages to speak. "The Roman Goddess of war," he says. At the looks of ill disguised surprise he receives Bucky rolls his eyes and offers a further explanation. "My lifelong best friend is dating a girl who's three quarters god and I've had a lot of free time. I did background reading. Steve had the books."

At that Cassie slants her gaze at Steve who shrugs looking unabashed. "You patrol most nights and get attacked by monsters," he says. "I can't help you or protect you. It seemed like the least I could do was be up to date on some of the details. You know," he shifts again. "In case it ever comes up."

Cassie leans across and kisses him on the cheek. "Intel is important," she intones gravely.

Reyna pops a bacon wrapped date in to her mouth, chews, and swallows. "Yes," she tells Bucky. "Roman Goddess of War and Battle. As far as we've been able to figure out Athena is the closest Greek equivalent, but Romans historically didn't treat Athena particularly well so we're a little touchy on making that comparison." She scoops some kind of salsa on to a yucca chip and considers it for a moment. "Basically I'm good with troop coordination and the use of sharp objects." Then she swallows the chip and eats another.

"She's understating," Cassie says, waving an accusatory fork. "Reyna here has been Praetor of New Rome for a decade and she managed to go to college and get a business degree at the same time."

Reyna attempts to brush the compliment off. "It wasn't that difficult," she says. "Especially not after Frank started helping and we started splitting the job. It was just about time management." She gestures at Cassie. "Gods, you made it all the way through being pre-med in New Rome while working quests for both camps, and doing your legion service, plus that whole thing with your father."

"Gods don't remind me," Cassie groans. "Finding out your immortal godly father has been temporarily turned in to a teenager and made officially your problem is _so_ not what you want to hear for your eighteenth birthday present." This comment leads in to several stories about Apollo as a human, all be it ones that are short on proper nouns just to be safe so that they can avoid any gods eavesdropping, getting offended, and deciding to smite one of them.

By the time all of the food, including a delicious flan has been consumed they are all pleasantly tired and even the super soldiers present are well fed. Reyna gets a call on her cellphone before the check comes and sighed as she answers. What follows is a quick exchange in Latin which Cassie mostly understands so she isn't surprised when Reyna apologizes and excuses herself. "There would appear to be a slight problem with an angry manticore in Battery Park that requires my attention."

Cassie prepares to push back her chair. "Do you want some help?" she offers.

Reyna shakes her head and stands, gathering her coat as she does so. "That shouldn't be necessary. I'd appreciate it if you stayed on your phone though. Just in case." Cassie agrees and Reyna gives her a quick one armed hug. "Shall we meet tomorrow for breakfast?"

"Definitely," Cassie says with a smile. "Text me in the morning. Have fun with the manticore. Impale it extra if it speaks French and try not to get impaled."

That makes Reyna smile. "There is a story there that you will owe me later," she tells Cassie and shakes hands with Steve and Bucky once more. "It was nice to meet you both. I hope we'll see each other again." She flashes them a grin when she's a little way out the door. "There is a man outside on the other side of the street trying to take pictures. I may go and frighten him before I leave."

Then she makes her way to the door. Bucky watches her go in a way that is probable subtle to people who aren't waiting to notice exactly that kind of behavior. "She's one of my best friends and one of the bravest people I know," Cassie remarks calmly, taking a sip of water. "Rachel likes her too. She thought you guys might get along." Steve is looking at her with an expression that might mean he appreciates her deviousness and is getting ready to back her play. "I have her phone number," Cassie remarks, poking an ice cube with her straw. "I could give it to you," she offers. "You could call her. If you wanted."

Bucky glares at her but without any particular malice. "You aren't being subtle." Cassie shoots him an incredulous look that asks with no words necessary if the man really thinks she was trying to be.

Steve gives Bucky a crooked grin and suddenly Cassie can see the two of them as they might have been back in Brooklyn all those years ago. That happens to her sometimes. The two will talk and Cassie will imagine a time before the war, before the ice and Nazis and HYDRA and SHIELD. "I think you should call her," Steve states and hands the waiter his credit card.

"I'm not going to call her," Bucky mutters mutinously. Out on the sidewalk their is the definitive crunching sound of shattering glass and plastic and the indignant shouting of a member of the associated press. This is followed by a flurry of faux-apologetic Spanish which quickly escalates in to angry shouting. In seconds the paparazzi goes from sounding angry to seeming terrified and then abruptly stops talking. A brief glance out to the sidewalk shows that the paparazzi has vacated the premises, leaving the shattered remains of a camera behind him on the sidewalk were Reyna stands with a smug smile.

Steve and Cassie both give Cassie meaningful looks, particularly his own reluctant smile. When he notices he groans and tosses Cassie his phone. "Fine."

It takes all of Cassie's self-restraint not to beam smugly herself.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I got some good feedback on people's opinions of Rachel dating as the Oracle and I thought about it and realized they were right. I also decided I wanted to bring Reyna in for AOU which I should be at by the next chapter if everything goes to plan and this seemed like a way to do it. I thought Bucky/Reyna would make a nice point of contrast for Steve/Cassie. What do you guys think? It'll probably be another few weeks before I can get another update posted so I tried to make this a nice long one. Happy Easter Early! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: If you guys are still reading this at the top of each chapter I am honestly impressed with your dedication to copyright law. Anyway, I own nothing you recognize as belonging to someone else. And I am in no way being paid for any of this. No one sue me. It would most definitely not be worth your time to try it, and definitely wouldn't be worth the legal fees you would have to pay to get the job done.**

Over the course of the next few month or so, the level of busy life in the Tower is increases steadily before flattening out at a point that should reach a decline, but doesn't seem to be doing it in any kind of hurry. Of course, it's well within the parameters of familiar life for Cassie to have sudden peaks of frantic business. These peaks do come with crashing downtime, but it's the kind of downtime that everyone knows will be short-lived which makes it less than relaxing.

The reason behind these sudden spikes of activity is part Cassie's doing, part Bucky's contribution, and a very large part the fault of HYDRA and the scattered fractions that represent all that is left of SHIELD. Even Cassie thinks it's a very strange metaphysical recipe, and her presence has played a key role in multiple prophecies determining the fate of the world. She also spent nearly a full year living in close quarters with Luke Castellan and that boy managed to make Greek Fire locked in an abandoned house using an unstable internet connection and limited physical resources. Talk about a weird recipe.

Anyway, after a frankly exhaustive amount of research in to the fields of medical biochemistry, psychology, psychiatry, brain chemistry, memory recovery, PTSD treatment, and electroshock therapy Cassie sends herself ready to try helping Bucky. She also gets JARVIS to find her each and every file on Bucky and the medical treatments HYDRA had put him through from off of the internet, or more accurately Tony's private encrypted servers which is where all of the information actually ended up.

Cassie had thought learning the in depth aspects of the advanced biochemistry of the brain as it applied to long term memory recovery had been unpleasant. Then she had read the first six HYDRA files and reassessed that opinion. Of course, most things that seemed bad could always be put in to perspective by finding something worse. Contrast had a way of shifting the human perspective.

After about two weeks of intensive study and planning, several fluorescent yellow highlighter stains, multiple headaches, an unhealthy amount of Tylenol, and an uncountable number of paper cuts Cassie takes her ideas to Bucky. After all, it's his brain, or more accurately his mind, that she's proposing they poke around with. After seventy years of HYDRA experimenting on him and taking his memories by force, Cassie is absolutely resolute in not doing anything else without his say so. Being manipulated sucked.

Steve is the first person to speak after she lays out her plan. "I think it's your decision Buck," he says seriously. Then he turns back to Cassie with a worried expression on his face. "Either way, I think the fact that you figured this out at all means you're officially allowed to sleep again."

Cassie blinked at him. "I sleep."

"Not lately," Steve returns, still looking worried.

She shrugs and waves a hand dismissively. "I'd say that I'll sleep when I'm dead, but I've met dead people, and they don't sleep so I'm not going to." It's true. She's met ghosts both Greek and Roman, ancient and new, and though they did many things including heavy military combat and creepy warning from beyond delivery, none of them slept or ate at all.

The furrow in Steve's brow creases. "You're on my team," he points out. "I can order you."

"I've known you for long enough to know that you enjoy the undermining of authority," Cassie points out. "It also happens to be very well historically documented and your oldest friend in existence is here to agree with me." At this Bucky gives a small nod in confirmation to back up her point. "Besides," Cassie continues. "As a firm disbeliever in the power of the unquestioned patriarchy, you don't actually get to order me to do anything unless we are A. in a dangerous combat dynamic wherein you are acting solely as my commanding officer or strategist in charge, or B. we're alone together and you as my boyfriend would like to explore a new kink which we can talk about later if you really want to."

Maybe she is tired because otherwise that last thought probably wouldn't have been vocalized. However, she can't deny that she experiences a particular sense of enjoyment at the shade of red Steve's face turns and the way he nearly chokes on his coffee. Bucky manages a slightly crooked grin at the reaction as well and calmly reaches around to smack Steve between the shoulder blades to help with the temporary choking.

"I'll let you two explore your sexy-times preferences later," Bucky says casually. Steve coughs harder and and Bucky smacks him on the back again. It's probably actually a good thing Cassie is as tired as she is because if she were more able to focus on two things at once right now she'd be able to recognize the bizarreness of openly chatting about the physical aspects of her relationship with her boyfriend Steve Rogers A.K.A living national icon Captain America in front of his best friend Bucky Barnes the former Howling Commando and current Winter Soldier. As it is, at the moment she doesn't have the mental energy to consider it much.

This seems to be about when they should try to get back on topic so Cassie gives Steve a moment to get back to a physical condition that lets him actually breath and then sits forwards. "Anyway, you brain forms memories through something called synaptic plasticity which is the connection between your brain cells. Long term memories are formed and become stronger when the synaptic connection is accessed frequently. What matters in your case," Cassie says, gesturing to Bucky. "Is that as far as your brain is concerned, memory is physical. HYDRA was blocking it off with unstable drugs and electroshock therapy to repress the synapses and scar them over."

Bucky is giving her his full attention now, ice colored eyes locked on her face. "What exactly does that mean in terms of my memories?" he asks tightly. He's trying very hard to control the emotions that want to bleed through in to his words and it isn't completely working. Cassie forges quickly ahead.

"The biggest problem HYDRA would have had was isolating the levels they were using to avoid frying out the training they were giving you right along with the personal memories. The best I can figure out is that they were relying on your healing factor from the serum along with your muscle memory to lock that in. But what it does mean is that they could never wipe you completely or they'd be pretty much back to square one with your training which would have been both expensive and time consuming." Bucky doesn't contradict her assumption.

Cassie almost wishes he could be able to. She can't even feel any grim satisfaction over having been right in her assessment from a medically professional perspective. She'd had to stop a few times in her research and file excavation to punch things in the gym. Bucky has become her friend and she can't help being furious on his behalf. A corner of her brain hopes fervently that Steve doesn't ever see the full details of the files. She's honestly worried about what he might do.

Steve is tapping the knuckles of one hand absently against the arm of his chair. "So if the damage is physical," he says slowly as he fully grasps what she's saying. "Does that mean that you can fix it? And if you can would it be magic? Or would it be something else?"

"I wouldn't be able to fix everything," Cassie warns. It's a little on the blunt side but this is something she knows she has to be explicitly clear on. She meets Bucky's eyes. "I would use an active MRI or CAT scan and very carefully controlled power to identify and heal the most physically scarred parts of your brain, operating with the theory that this is the part that was shocked the most often to repress your memories of being someone other than the Soldier. I might also be able to get you back some of the memories of your time with HYDRA. On the other hand some things are almost definitely gone forever because the memories were never allowed to create synaptic pathways and some will be too heavily effected by what HYDRA did."

There's a bit of a gap in the conversation as Bucky and Steve process the information. "I'm guessing that none of that," Bucky says with a broad hand motion that makes light flash off of his metallic fingers. "Would be exactly risk free. What kind of problems would I be looking at."

Cassie's fingers twist together and untwist in her lap as she organizes that particular doozy of a list. "Well for one thing, there's the content of the memories themselves," she says. "Neither of us would have any control over what you would actually get back, and I'm guessing a lot of it wouldn't be good."

Bucky lets out a harsh unfeeling laugh. "Yeah. Well you're not wrong."

"Also," Cassie says, forging ahead. "What I'm talking about isn't something anybody has ever tried to do before. I have no way of knowing if it will work. It's possible that exactly nothing will happen, it's possible that I'll erase memories permanently by accident, and it's possible that I'll accidentally fry everything and slip you back to being the Soldier or turn you in to a useless drooling vegetable. Which, thanks to your healing, is a state you would probably be stuck in for approximately seventy years. You also, could die."

Cassie has heard that delicacy is a wonderful thing to use in conversation. She'll try it sometime when she's not discussing highly dangerous and hitherto untested semi-magical memory retrieval.

And once she's had a few days back on a normalized sleeping schedule.

Steve may have had a point there.

There's an understandably longer silence after this potential outcome is vocalized. There's a distinct feeling in the room of held breath and strained expectancy. Things are balanced on a knife edge here, and as Cassie is someone who has in fact balanced things on the edge of a knife, she feels empowered to correctly make that assessment. Actually, most of her friends are probably equally empowered in this area.

The silence is broken by Bucky. "Alright," he says. Cassie's head jerks up to look at him and she can hear the sharp inhale of Steve's breath fro, where he sits beside her on the sofa. "HYDRA took who I was," Bucky says. "If there's a chance to get it back, then I want it." Cassie nods and stands up. The others stand with her. "I just have one condition," Bucky says as he makes his way to the door. "Get some sleep first okay? Steve's pores are leaking anxiety and the skin under your eyes isn't a color human skin is supposed to be able to turn."

"Told you," Steve mutters. Apparently Captain America isn't above regressing to playground dialogue in the right situations.

Cassie glares a bit at both of them and mutters a few uncomplimentary words in Greek, but she lets Steve towards their bedroom and is curling up under the covers to go to sleep about ten minutes later. She's up again ten hours later, and giving Bucky the first round of their agreed upon treatment an hour after that. Bucky leaves the session with no visible signs of being any worse off mentally than he had been when he came in, so they continue for the rest of the week, one day and one tiny spark of Cassie's magic at a time.

On the second day of April, they start getting results.

Bucky gets back several years worth of previously blocked childhood memories. He and Steve have some fun talking through those and Cassie enjoys getting to listen in. Steve is friends with Sam and Tony and the other Avengers and having them around makes him happy, but talking over the past with Bucky animates him in a different way. The conversations are different, like the kind siblings have, the products of shared childhood, and they prompt Cassie to share some of her own stories from Camp about her siblings and her friends.

He also gets quite a lot of memories about HYDRA. He gets locations of bases and names of handlers. And he picks up a lot of extra motivation to share around to their reactionary, easily angered, superpowered friends.

Hence the Avengers being rather highly busy, the kind of busy that requires Banner accessing the Other Guy with more regularity.

This also adds to Cassie's level of business because she happens to be the girl who's been working on figuring out containment methods for the other guy. In some ways Cassie wishes her friends and coworkers could learn to stagger their crises more. Reyna's an organized kind of person and she's been around the tower more lately. Maybe she could work out a schedule.

In a somewhat ironic twist, Cassie ends up taking her idea from an adapted version of Bucky's trigger phrases.

"From what I've worked out from the files HYDRA kept on Bucky," Cassie starts as she talks things over with Banner. "It looks like they used a varying selection of trigger words and phrases which, when said in the right order, caused different psychological responses. The main one they used was a twelve word compliance trigger in Russian. They made him malleable and ready to follow any orders to the level. I'm guessing the only reason they didn't use it all the time was that it doesn't allow for much freedom of thought which he would have needed for any in mission improvising."

Banner frowns slightly and Cassie knows it isn't because he doesn't understand. The man is one of the most scientifically literal and psychologically invested people she knows. "So you're saying that we should give me a trigger phrase?"

"Not you," Cassie clarifies hurriedly. "I don't believe that people should have triggers. I'm talking about the Other Guy. I think we should find a way to build a pathway you can use to transition between the two that other people can help you with in the field. I want to give you a way to be further in control."

"And for other people to have some control over the Other Guy," Banner surmises. Cassie feels uncomfortable for a moment but Bruce hold up a hand to forestall her. "It's smart," he says. "Tony's already designing a suite he can use to take the Other Guy on if the worst comes to the worst." He steeples his fingers and looks up at the ceiling and Cassie sits back to give him his time to think. "Ideally," Banner says, still looking at the ceiling. "I'd like it not to get that far," he looks back down at her. "What do you suggest?"

Cassie gives him a smile that she tries very hard to make not mischievous and as reassuring as possible. "First thing first," she says. "Who on the team would you say the Other Guy finds the least threatening?"

That's how Cassie ends up spending several weeks teaching the Black Widow A.K.A Natasha Romanov the ins and outs of calming and controlling a radiation fueled gigantic green rage monster. The only thing more surprising than the situation is the fact that it yields good results. On the next mission Banner participates in, Natasha is able to talk him back in to being Bruce before they get on the plane back home. Cassie's able to witness this phenomenon first hand because she's been going on the missions with them to serve in a medical capacity which is necessary given their newly increased engagement level with hostile forces.

She's also been working with Dr. Cho to perfect the skin replacement cradle. Perhaps unsurprisingly, their first and most frequent patient is Clint Barton. The man doesn't often get cold and refuses to wear sleeves, even kevlar protective ones unless he absolutely has to. He's also one of two completely human members of the Avengers team and lacks the benefit of super healing. As a result, he spends some significant time getting stitched, stapled, taped, glued, media-cradled, sutured, and magicked back in to one human piece.

Natasha brings him in each time with a patient sigh and roll of the eyes. The red head also places herself in charge of receiving his post-injury care instructions and medications, and when she's not in the field she wears a tiny gold arrow charm on a delicate chain around her neck. No one ever brings it up or asks them to define their relationship, probably because Barton and Natasha can probably be voted the two people in the group most likely to commit murder or severe bodily harm in the name of maintaining privacy with the exception of Bucky.

Speaking of relationships Cassie doesn't ever plant to inquire in to if she's not deliberately invited in to, people who might be willing to commit murder in the name or personal privacy, and metal armed super soldiers born in Brooklyn in World War II and not named Steve Rogers, Cassie comes back around to the fact that Reyna is in the tower pretty often now.

In fact, one morning in early May, Cassie runs in to her friend suspiciously early in the morning. Well, "finds" might not be the right word given that Reyna knocks on her door and Cassie opens it. When Cassie can get on a natural sleep cycle she wakes up with the sun and this is one rare morning where she's managed to wake up before Steve and role out of bed without disturbing him. This is actually quite a feat given that Steve tends to sleep wrapped around her like a warm, living, comfortable steel trap, inescapable until he wakes up and moves of his own volition. A sleeping dead weight Steve Rogers is a heavy Steve Rogers.

Still, Cassie feels motivates to get up. She's had a night of disturbingly vivid dreams. They don't really have images, just sounds like clanging metal, crackling fire, breaking glass, crashing rock, and terrified screams. The only image she gets is of words flashing behind her eyes. _Prosochi skin ilikia tou Rchalyva kai prosexte tin ilikia ton thavmaton. Erchontai. Erchontai. Erchontai._ _Beware the Age of Steel, and Beware the Age of Miracles._ _They are coming. They are coming. They are coming._

It's her father's warning from the card he gave her at her graduation and as she starts her morning it's flashing behind her eyes and making Cassie absolutely determined to think about something else for a little while and stick this on the back burner for a while until she can work out what it means.

Cassie lets Reyna in without comment and serves her some coffee. "So..." she says, drawing out the vowel sound. "You're here early." Then she waits.

"Late," Reyna corrects, draining her coffee. "From my perspective."

Cassie merely raises an eyebrow at her in response and Reyna shrugs. Part of the reason the two of them have always gotten along so well is that both of them generally understand when no words are necessary and no questions have to be asked. Cassie would say that it's a Roman sensibility, but Hazel blushes constantly, Frank stutters in uncomfortable situations, and Jason tends to push for information he doesn't actually have the right to in the name of team cohesion and working together.

Instead of dong any of those things Cassie finishes her own drink and regards her friend. "Well we're both up," she says. "Want to go spar in the super gym?"

"Super gym?" Reyna inquires skeptically.

Cassie lifts a shoulder. "That's what I'm calling it. Stark has it all decked out and reinforced so that Thor, Steve, and Bucky can actually use it. I do too but no one seems to want to ask me about that just yet. There's a nice archery range too you could probably do javelin practice on if you wanted."

Reyna agrees and after a ten minute interval so that they can both change in to work out clothes and gather their assorted weapons, the two girls meet in the hallway and Cassie leads the way to the gym. Once there the two of them stop and Reyna regards Cassie and the padded sparring area. "Will Stark's reinforcements hold up to our kind of weapons?" she asks doubtfully.

Cassie dips her head. The skepticism in Reyna's question is hardly unfounded given that they've both seen Imperial Gold and Celestial bronze slice through reinforced steel and concrete like so much rice paper. "Hard to say," she says. "It seems to stand up to Thor, but I've never seen him take the magic hammer to anything in here, so maybe not." She reaches up and adjusts her braid so that it's a little more secure. "We'd better keep it hand to hand."

Reyna smiles and makes her way in to small equipment rack along one side of the padded combat space. She holds up a roll of tape. "Exactly who using this gym needs to worry about taping their knuckles for boxing?"

"Steve does sometimes," Cassie says, shrugging. "I think he just does it for the sake of going through the process. He likes to be methodical." She flexes her fingers and bends her wrists back and forth, then alternates tipping her head to both sides to stretch out her neck. "Stark practices here sometimes too," she notes. "So does Rhodes when he isn't working or with his family, and I think Sam, Natasha, and Barton work out here too. At least," she adds fairly. "When they aren't out on missions. None of them has super healing of an kind."

Reyna accepts the information easily enough. "Well why not I suppose," she muses aloud. Then she begins taping her own fingers with easy, practiced, motions before throwing the tape roll over to Cassie when she's done. Reyna is nothing if not practical. She'll do something to the utmost of her ability as long as she can see a point of doing it. Reyna has the same durability level as any other demigod, but she doesn't have healing powers the way that Cassie does.

Still, Cassie tapes up her own fingers with the same efficiency as Reyna. She doesn't really feel like handling micro fractures, sprains, or jams at the moment. Besides, the weather today is dim and cloudy and healing without any sunlight will only drain her magic. Given that all of the missions the team has been sent on lately have been short notice and dangerous, that's not a position anyone on the team can actually afford for her to be in.

"Ready?" Reyna asks when she's done, retreating to one side of the ring.

Cassie grins and tosses the roll of tape casually to the side. It lands perfectly back in the spot Reyna had originally picked it up from. Then she backs up to the opposite side of the ring from Reyna, her temporary enemy. "When you are."

Reyna mutters something under her breath which Cassie thinks sounds a lot like "show off." Cassie just grins wider and spreads her feet, bending her knees very slightly to equally distribute her weight. Then she waits for Reyna to move first.

One of the peculiarities of her abilities is that she's surprisingly good at close quarters combat when she has to be for the child of the god of striking from a distance. When she gets in to a hand-to-hand battle, she finds herself aware of the fighting rhythm and is able to work with or against it to best suite her purposes. However, this particular ability only happened to kick in after the other party had attacked and combat had actually begun.

The fingers of Reyna's left hand twitch once, and in the next moment the other girl has lunged forward. Cassie meets her momentum and converts the force of the movement by leveraging her friend in a judo throw that has her crashing towards the floor. Reyna recovers quickly and immediately tucks in to a roll before springing upright a few feet away. Cassie darts after her, launching a strike towards Reyna's head which she dodges by dropping downwards and kicking out at Cassie's feet.

This time it's Cassie's turn to get acquainted with the blue crash mats that make up the floor. She regains her feet by rocking backwards on to her hands and using her core to launch back upwards like she's participating in a choreographed fight in a kung fu movie. The unnecessarily dramatic movement makes Reyna crack a smile and the fight continues.

As the sparring session progresses, it becomes infinitely more clear that the eventual result will be a draw. Cassie and Reyna know each other too well, and have received too much of the same training for either of them to ever truly manage to gain a substantive advantage. They're fighting styles are different to be sure, Reyna is Roman organized and brutally utilitarian, and Cassie fights like a Greek devil, relying on unpredictability and unusual choices in the methods she uses and openings she takes advantage of, but they still come out even in the end. Maybe if they were actually motivated to try to hurt one another things would be different, but as things are, the fight stays balanced with both of them tiring at the same rate and no one making any progress towards winning.

Cassie is exactly two seconds from calling an end when Reyna takes a deliberate step back and holds up both of her hands in the shape of a T. "Okay," she says around a breathless, panting laugh. "Okay. I call it. We're done! Draw!"

With a huff of relief Cassie freezes mid-motion and drops down on to the map, stretching her legs out in front of her and leaning back on her hands. "Thank the gods," she says as Reyna flops down next to her. "We should do that more often."

"Definitely," Reyna agrees. Then she flops back so that she's lying flat on her back staring up at the ceiling. She shifts her neck to the side and most roll on to a bruise because she mutters a hushed "ouch" and winces. "Just maybe not too often."

With another exhausted laugh Cassie falls on to her own back and feels her own face twist in to a wince as she puts pressure on a forming bruise curtsy of Reyna's elbow. "Oh... Agreed." They lay back together for several minutes as they regain their breath and feel the pleasant soreness in their muscles and the steady healing of fresh bruises. Cassie's braid isn't as tidy as it was when the fight had started and Reyna's bun has completely dissolved, leaving their hair to tangle together in a mess of rich brown and bright gold on the matts.

Then the door opens and they both sit up straight to look at the newcomer. It turns out to be Pepper, dressed as ever in neat business clothes and managing to look both immaculately well put together and busily frazzled at the same time. Frankly, Cassie finds the duality to be thoroughly impressive. "Oh, hello," she greets from the door."

"Hey Pepper," Cassie says, climbing to her feet. Reyna climbs up behind her and looks quizzically from Cassie to Pepper. Cassie remembers then that the two of them haven't actually been introduced to each other yet and moves to remedy that. "Oh, Pepper this is my friend Reyna, former proctor of the 12th legion of Rome and combat extraordinaire. Reyna, this is Pepper. She's the CEO of the company, at least sixty percent of the reason Stark hasn't ended the world yet, and my personal ally in keeping Steve and Tony from getting annoyed and murdering each other by accident."

Pepper tips her head like she might argue the description, but then thinks better of it. "That's... accurate actually." She crosses the room and offers her hand for Reyna to shake. "It's nice to meet you."

Reyna shakes he extended hand. "Ditto. And likewise."

At that Pepper manages a small smile and runs a hand over her already immaculately smooth hair. "Well, I wish I could stay longer since this has been, and will probably continue to be the least stressful part of my day, but I now have to go meet the grim fate that is the free press in a conglomerated organized mass."

"Like crows," Cassie muses, tipping her head to the side. "That's called a murder. Seems appropriate."

"Oh god you're right," Pepper groans. "I hadn't even thought about it like that before but it is so, so, incredibly true." She sighs. "And now I have to go face them and that's going to be in my head the whole time."

At that Reyna frowns and shifts her weight forwards a fraction. Cassie shifts herself to the side in response to let her forwards. She's known Reyna long enough to know when the gears in her mind are churning up a solution to a problem. "Is there a possible way in which a hoard of assembled press could be considered a large group of individuals in need of being marshaled towards a common end selected and monitored by a singular leading force?"

Peppers brow furrows slightly but she leans forward in interest over where this question might be leading. "It probably could," she acknowledges. Then her eyes widen as she seems to grasp what Reyna means. "Is that something you might be able to handle?"

An almost maniacal grin spreads slowly across Reyna's face. It's an expression Cassie has seen before, mostly during war games or the planning of actually military sieges against hostile forces. It's a look that says that the daughter of Bellona has a plan to crush her enemies and expects whole heartedly that it will work. "Can you buy me ten minutes to shower and change?"

Approximately twelve minutes later, Cassie is standing next to Pepper at the back of the Tower lobby watching Reyna mold the will of the press like warm play-dough in her hands. She's wearing a blouse and pencil skirt cobbled together from a combination of clothes borrowed from Pepper and Natasha, and her hair is still a little damp, but the press is too occupied with being ruthlessly handled and corralled in to writing notes based on the information Pepper wants to give and that they actually have a legal right to too notice that.

The conference is over twenty minutes after it starts and the press clears out as ordered. Then Reyna makes her way back over to them with a happily satisfied expression. Her heels were Natasha's main contribution to the outfit and they click steadily over the tiled floor. "Problem solved," she declares, handing Pepper back the clipboard of information Pepper had given her to make the press announcements.

"You're hired," Pepper declares without preamble. "Full time and starting now. Non-negotiable. Someone from legal will be seeing you with a contract, a pay package, and the insurance paperwork. I'll talk to Tony today about getting you housing. Talking to the press is a twenty-four hour job in this building. Here and the White House. You'll need to be on site as much as possible."

Cassie grins slyly. "Somehow I don't think housing is going to be a problem. If we're out of apartments she can move in to the apartment near mine and Steve's."

Pepper frowns. "Doesn't Barnes live in that apartment?"

"Yup," Cassie responds, popping the 'P' with an expression she's sure mirrors the cheshire cat or possibly the Grinch, greatly enjoying the fact that Reyna, who just fearlessly stared down an entire legion of reporters is feeling uncomfortable talking about her dating life in front of Pepper Potts.

From Pepper's expression she seems to be enjoying the moment too and she point two fingers from Cassie to Reyna. "I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy having you two, Darcy, Jane, and Natasha Romanov living in the same building as me. It makes it much easier to drag you all out to randomly scheduled Girl's Nights and drinking when the guys are off pummeling mountains or whatever it is they do when no one is there to stop them."

Then Peppers phone rings and she vanishes off to whatever she has to do next so quickly Cassie would almost swear Shadow Travel, Sun Flashing, or other teleportation is involved. "Well," Reyna says after a moment of protracted silence. "I guess this answers the question of what I was going to do with my life now that I've retired from leading the Legion... and of where I was going to live now."

Cassie leans up to pat her friend on the shoulder. She has to do this because Reyna is taller than her when they're both in flats. With the other girl in heels, their height differential is probably almost comical to the outside eye. "The world moves fast," she says. "Especially with Pepper. If she wasn't efficient enough for several people besides herself Stark's whole company and entire life probably would have imploded about twenty years ago."

"I suppose the insurance plan is probably fantastic," Reyna muses out loud.

"Very true," Cassie agrees. "Besides I'm the main medical staff so I can handle any incidental monster damage you run in to. Plus, your rent is now free, the pay scale here is frankly astronomical, and you'd have very convenient access to your new boyfriend."

Reyna grins and flicks her braid back over her shoulder with a toss of her head. "You're points are excellent Cassandra Morgenstern," she declares. "Now I think you should go shower and then show me the pile of paperwork I have to fill out."

"It's less mountainous than it could be," Cassie says bracingly. "After all, half of the issues for the people I deal with either don't have trackable medical histories or have complications so extensive that the standard paperwork doesn't even apply to them."

"Excellent."

Even though what Cassie says about the state of the paperwork and the rest of the Avengers floor occupancy is true, getting Reyna's paperwork sorted out still takes the entire remainder of the morning. She's still got about an inch of paperwork left in the stack Pepper sends for her when Cassie's phone buzzes with a text message from Steve.

 _I'm not sure where you are, but I've got lunch ready up at the apartment if you're hungry._

"Mind if I duck out?" Cassie asks Reyna. She waves her phone vaguely as her friend looks up from signing her name for what has to be the fortieth time in the last two hours. "Steve made lunch," she offers by way of explanation.

The look Reyna gives her is somewhere between a smile and a smirk. "Like actually lunch? Or 'lunch' with little finger quotes around it?"

Given the fact that she teased and poked at Reyna plenty that morning Cassie resists the urge to make any kind of snappy comeback. After all, when it comes to teasing turnabout is generally considered fair play. Instead, she raises a singular eyebrow. "I guess I won't know until I show up will I?"

Reyna shared her head with a smile and twirls her pen over her knuckles before going back to her paperwork. "Go. Enjoy your lunch. Whatever meaning you may assign to the word. I probably have at least another hour to go with all of this."

Cassie stands up and stretches. A few of her joints pop and click after so long sitting still in an office chair and she wonders vaguely if that's a sign she's getting old. Though, to be fair she had probably caused herself enough premature joint damage before turning sixteen to give anybody the hallmarks of early on set injury related arthritis. The fact that the condition isn't technically diagnosable in her yet is almost definitely a good sign.

"You know I think most people sign without actually reading all of the fine print," she points out on her way around the table towards the door.

Reyna signs another page and moves it to the completed pile with a flourish. "That is how people end up fired without severance packages, getting less pay and fewer promotions than they deserve, unfair child care policies, and no hopes of reaching a timely retirement. Besides," she turns over a new page. "If there's one thing leading New Rome has taught me, it is that proper bureaucratic practices are important. Though," she adds. "You'd think a man as technologically competent as Stark would have more of this computerized."

"The problem is his competence," Cassie explains. "He knows how things can be hacked." Reyna nods and Cassie leaves without further comment.

She makes her way back up to the apartment. Steve is in the kitchen overseeing what looks to be nearly completed preparations for tacos. The smell of cooking meat, peppers, and onions makes Cassie realize that she's suddenly starving. She didn't have much in the way of breakfast and then worked through a complete training session and now her stomach has decided that food needs to become available immediately.

Once she's through the door she hitches herself up on to the counter beside the stove and leans up to kiss Steve. "Hey-o boyfriend."

Steve lifts his left hand to cup her cheek. "Hello Beautiful."

He deepens the kiss for a moment while he uses his other hand to shut of the stove. Cassie slips her tongue along his lower lip with a gentle hum and Steve's hand slips on the stove controls as the hand that had been on her cheek drops as his arm curls around her hips. She grins broadly against his mouth. "Wasn't superior coordination a part of the biological engineering in those experiments? How are those reflexes treating you Soldier?"

The sound he makes in response to that is less words and more of a low rumbling noise that resonates wonderfully in his chest as it travels up his throat. "I'd say they're working out fine," he manages in a voice several octaves lower than normal. His body shifts so that it's within the circle of her legs. " I'll let you judge," he murmurs.

"Hmmm..." Cassie says, locking her arms around his neck. "Good idea. I am the doctor after all."

In the next seconds Cassie's line of sight goes blurry and all she gets is a short series of disconnected images. All she really knows for certain is that the stove gets turned off and that Steve's hands have found the hem of her shirt and slid below it to curve over her skin. One palm slides up the ridges of her spine, warm and ladened with calluses from his shield and the sensation makes Cassie shiver, squirming further in to his chest as she burrows her fingers in to his hair. Her nails scrape over the skin at the base of his neck and this time it's Steve's turn to shudder.

A shrill beeping noise interrupts them, breaking through the fog of their kisses. "Shit," Steve mutters. He runs his hands through his hair in agitation, taking deep breathes in and out through his nose. Cassie can only sit their blinking, trying to wait for her mind and body to catch back up with each other. "Damn smoke alarm," Steve says on an exhale, taking a step backwards and reaching up to turn off the device in question. "Pepper made JARVIS upgrade them last time Tony blew something up."

"Too bad," Cassie agrees, shifting to lean back against the kitchen cupboards as she forces her muscles to relax, trying to open up a little bit of space between the two of them. She also takes the step of shutting her eyes. Her boyfriend is incredibly attractive and favors tight shirts which is visually fantastic but not great for self-control. "Reyna and I were just debating other uses for lunch time."

A tiny cracking sound makes Cassie open her eyes which she does just in time to see Steve standing in front of her holding a handful of splintered wire and plastic. A quick glance upwards reveals an empty space on the ceiling where the smoke detector used to be. Well, it's definitely stopped beeping now. "Permanent obliteration seems like a harsh fate," she comments. "What did that meaningless hunk of plastic ever do to you."

"It interrupted the start of a very promising lunch date with my girl," Steve says with absolute zero remorse or embarrassment in his voice despite the pink-red flush spreading out over the tops of his ears and neck. "It deserved to die." He throws out the remains and dusts off his palms before gripping Cassie's waist and lifting her bodily off of the counter. Cassie's spent her life around people who are stronger than a normal human, but it would be a bald faced lie to say that the fact that her boyfriend can move her like that with such little effort isn't something she finds hot.

She tips her head back to look up at him. "So does this mean actual lunch or not? Cuz I have to admit I'm starving and that smells incredible."

Steve exhales a laugh like he's surprised he's making the sound. Then he leans down and presses his lips against her forehead, and then her nose, and then each cheek. "Yes," he confirms. "Actual lunch. Go sit at the counter and I'll bring the food. You can tell me what you got up to this morning while we eat."

Cassie sits and Steve presents her with a large plate of taco salad as he takes a seat across from her and begins to eat as she details the events of the day around mouthfuls of taco meat, lettuce, salsa, and nacho chips. "So basically I got up, figured out the relationship status of two of our collective best friends, did combat training, saved Pepper from the press, and got Reyna a job in the building including housing, benefits, and close contact with her boyfriend which should improve the moods of at least two people we know for the immediate future." She takes a new bight of her lunch. "It's been a productive morning."

This gets her a bright grin from across the counter. Steve finished his meal in half the time it's taken her to eat hers which isn't all that surprising given his metabolism and the fact that she's done the majority of the talking for the last twenty minutes. "I happen to think efficiency and organization are very attractive traits."

Cassie squints at him as she brandishes a pepper at him. "I have always suspected that about you." She chomps down on the pepper. "I'm on to you Rogers."

Before Steve can answer his phone buzzes on the counter. It isn't the standard buzz either. This is the urgent emergency buzz Cassie programmed in for him to signal mission texts. Steve did a lot of work to become technologically literate immediately after coming out of the ice and isn't bad at trouble shooting pamphlet typical issues but doesn't really poke at tech farther than he has to to use the basic functions.

Steve frowns down at the screen readout and sighs. "Mission in Sokovia," he reads. "It looks like Hill and Fury's people have managed to find the facility HYDRA is using to store Loki's scepter from the battle of Manhattan. Of course it only took them two years to track it down in time to interrupt lunch."

"Well don't break the phone for telling you," Cassie says, trying to affect a light and breezy attitude. Going in to missions from a place of at least casualness was normally helpful until the actual fighting got started and it was time to be serious. "As a grandchild of the patron god of the original postal service, I feel compelled to tell you not to kill the nice innocent messenger."

"How about breaking Nazis?" Steve offers as an alternative.

Cassie props herself forwards and pecks his mouth quickly. "That is a course of action that I think is rational, just, valid, proportional as a response, and well within your extensive capabilities as a Super Soldier," she says fairly. "Let's go get packed. I'll call up the medical bay and tell them to stand by. If we're bringing Barton and Natasha I'll call Dr. Cho to bring the cradle here in case anyone gets shot. Or stabbed. Or set on fire. Or electrocuted."

Steve dips his head in acknowledgement and grabs Cassie's medical kit to hand to her. "Sadly, I'm pretty sure all of those outcomes are possible."

They're most of the way through gathering up their respective sets of gear when there's a knock on the door and Steve leaves to go and answer it. The tone and registers of the voice of whoever it is makes Cassie thinks it's Bucky. The assumption is proven correct when she finishes changing and leaves the room to find the two of them talking in the doorway. Steve has all of the base layers of his gear on and Bucky is dressed in what looks like at least two of his usual layers of combat armor.

Bucky leans around Steve when he hears her footsteps. "You're in on this one?" he asks. If there's one thing Cassie has learned to be undoubtedly true about James Buchanan Barnes, it's that in this century he rarely uses syllables he doesn't think are necessary.

"Yup," she replies. "But obviously if you guys could avoid needing me that would be great for everyone."

"We're heading up to the roof to catch the jet," Steve says. "Stark says he's got the arsenal on board so we'll be able to finish suiting up before we land. If you haven't eaten lunch yet I recommend grabbing something now. I don't know what kind of provisions he's got and we're going in to this without a timeline. We'll take care of the official briefing in the air."

Bucky nods succinctly and looks over at Cassie. "Any chance you've got one of those bar things?"

Cassie's response is to chuck a protein bar from the pocket of her bag in his direction. He catches it out of the air with ease and reads the label before making a small face. "Are there any others?" the look she levels at him must convey her nonverbal _are you fucking kidding me_ with perfect clarity because Bucky raises and drops one shoulder. "The mint ones taste odd."

"Oh for the love of," Cassie says throwing up her hands before rummaging in her bag for a moment before extracting a chocolate flavored protein bar and chucking it at his head with slightly more force than is strictly necessary. Bucky catches it, looking thoroughly unperturbed as he opens the package and takes a bight. Cassie just shakes her head at the sheer ridiculousness of the former Winter Soldier having a granola bar flavor preference and casts a look at Steve to share her thoughts only to find her boyfriend looking at her with an expression that's half hopeful and half sheepish. "Seriously?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. He gives her an uneven, slightly goofy smile and Cassie fishes out another bar and hands it to him with a sigh. "Fine. Eat up. Let's go find you boys some Nazis to punch."

"History and several newsreels would seem to suggest it's a successful leisure activity for us."

They've been walking the whole time and have just made their way on to the roof. The wind whips Cassie's braid up in to her face. Moments later they're on board, joining Natasha and Banner in the surprisingly comfortable seats for take off. Barton is in the pilots chair and Stark seems to have claimed copilots status for himself which Cassie supposes is his prerogative given that the jet technically belongs to him. Thor is planning to meet them somewhere in European airspace as he had been with Jane at a conference overseas when the mission alert went out.

Bucky and Barton seem to be discussing the merits of different kinds of riffle scopes with Tony chiming in for the occasional snarky comment interspersed with a valid opinion. Cassie chips in a few moments but she can't say much given that her vision and aim make using a scope fairly superfluous. Soon Banner engages her in a combination about the exact workings of Dr. Cho's cradle and in the background Cassie can hear Natasha teaching Steve higher level Russian.

The whole atmosphere is friendly and relaxed despite the potentially dangerous combat situation they're going in to and it makes Cassie feel... just...safe.

As it turns out, she probably should have doubted that feeling a little bit more than she does.

She should have doubted it a lot in fact.

Her father had been wrong in his note and so had her dream that morning.

Because the ages of steel and miracles aren't coming.

 _Aftoi einai edo._

They are here.

 **A/N: So there we have it guys. We're firmly on the springboard to Age of Ultron and the next chapter will see us diving right on in to it. Did you guys like the job I figured out for Reyna? I wanted a way to integrate her in to the Tower which meant getting her a job with the rest of them and I felt like managing and focusing a large group of people was right up her alley. I also wanted to take a bit more of an exploration in to what Cassie and Steve might be like in a more teasing way now that they're relationship has been established for a little while. Besides, all of the characters are grown up. They're in their late twenties and at least early thirties and after re-reading some of the story I wasn't sure that was clear in some of the interactions so I'm trying to adjust a little and still keep things lined up with what I've already established. Wow, anyway that's a lot. But did it come across for you guys? Obviously it's all a work in progress. Anyway, happy Easter/April Fools Day/Birthday if you are like me and were born on April 1st. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I own nothing so don't sue me. It seriously would not be worth your time.**

It takes about twenty minutes after they land to make it clear that the mission the Avengers are on is not a stealth assignment. That route is contemplated but quickly dismissed when they locate, or more accurately are attacked by, a large squadron of HYDRA soldiers armed with advanced weaponry. Steve does tell them that if they surrender they'll be hauled back to the United States to face international law, but they don't take that option. Apparently, opening fire on a group of enhanced and highly trained super heroes is just more fun.

That particular altercation ends with the men in question incapacitated and Natasha and Barton appropriating their armored vehicle for their charge on the main compound where the scepter Loki used in the Battle of New York is being kept. Steve prefers to go in on a mission-capable motorcycle designed and produced by Stark, and Stark himself eschews any other form of transport in favor of his suite. Thor, being capable of flight, simply goes in to smash things to pieces under his own power and Banner as the Hulk joins in.

Cassie hangs back in the jet with her medical supplies laid out and prepared with JARVIS for company. She's done this same thing enough times that she's gotten used to the AI's way of conversation and finds the level of humanity present there both comforting and unsettling at the same time. To make things easier, she's gotten in to the habit of looking up at the ceiling when they talk and picturing an elderly British butler sitting in a control room somewhere.

At any rate, the disembodied company is welcome. When they're in the field Cassie detaches her medical knowledge as far as she possibly can from her personal feelings. However, once you've slept with someone, there really is no way to ignore the fact that they're your boyfriend, and after Christmas and Thanksgiving with people, it's hard not to think of them as a disjointed family.

Cassie is well aware of the fact that each and every member of the team is capable of looking after themselves and that they all have each other's backs. Intellectually that all fits together. On the other hand, her emotional side makes her worry about each and every one of them. She's spent a lot of her lifetime stitching together her friends and family after a battle only to send them in to the next one, and it never really gets easier to do.

So yes, JARVIS' presence, invisible though it is, is a comfort as the AI uses it's full abilities to survey the fight to get in to the compound.

"Shit!" Tony swears loudly through the communications link up. Cassie looks up to see the screen JARVIS is running and notices that the dot tracking Tony seems to have hit the perimeter of the main building and then spun of course.

"Language!" Steve sensors immediately and Cassie can't help but smile.

She knows for a fact that Steve actually swears plenty when he feels like it's called for. Actually, she has a vague theory that some of the time around Tony, Steve puts in an effort to act like the image of himself that history has painted. Almost like he's trying ever so slightly to live up to whatever stories Howard Stark might have told his son. She doesn't know why, and she hasn't brought it up, but she also doesn't think it's a theory that's very far fetched.

Steve then asks JARVIS what the view looks like from his sensors and the AI replies that there's some kind of advanced technology creating a shield of energy around the building. Thor concludes that the presence of such a defense means that they must have actually found the scepter at long last. Cassie's not surprised to hear it, she can feel that the Mist is strong here and she doesn't think it's just because of Thor.

"At long last is lasting a little long boys," Natasha chimes in from her position. Cassie can hear multiple explosions and gun shots over her link and her voice is calm but tense. Cassie lays out a few more adhesive bandages to add to her line of supplies. Out of the whole team, Barton and Natasha are the only ones involved without an additional healing power to keep them alive and kicking if anything goes wrong.

Thankfully, the two of them operate as a team and stay close together, making it so that if on gets hurt, the other can keep them alive until Cassie shows up. Sure enough, Barton is the next one to speak. "Yup," he comments in a tone that almost exactly matches Natasha's. "I think we've lost the element of surprise."

Cassie is tempted to ask if they ever actually expected to have one. After all, they did begin this little operation with Banner in full Hulk mode and Thor and Stark flying in, capes and blasters included. Plus, Steve on a motorcycle. Being subtle hadn't seemed like it was much of a priority in operational planning today.

Stark chimes in before she can comment. "Hold on. Is no one going to deal with the fact that Cap just said 'language'? Do you get this treatment at home Little Miss Sunshine?"

"Isn't that a little long for an operational code name?" Cassie questions. She knows that Tony can't see her eyes rolling but figures the action is probably implied through her tone of voice. The debate over what to call her in the field is a recently started one and Tony seems to delight in coming up with convoluted options.

Just as she thinks Stark can hear her eye roll she has no problem detecting his when he says "Whatever. Hey Assassin Long Hair, do you have a language problem too?"

"Absolutely," Bucky answers dryly. Bucky is currently serving an operational purpose of jumping between trees to rain down covering fire for the rest of the team from above. If the physical effort is causing him any strain it's not clear in his breathing or voice. "While I was being experimented on by Nazis I kept a swear jar. It covered the cost of candy when I wasn't being memory wiped and cry frozen against my will."

There's a rush of static over the speaker and the view on screen in the jet shows that Steve has just deliberately launched his bike in to the enemy as an improvised explosive projectile. "It just slipped out," he says in defensive exasperation. Sometimes it's hard to remember that Steve is twenty-seven and ninety-five at the same time. At that moment it's incredibly easy.

The fight continues and Stark calls in a group of drone suites he calls the Iron Legion to contain potential casualties. Cassie wonders if they might have time to stick around a little after they deal with the scepter to help clean everything up. Her contemplation comes to an abrupt end when a new individual moving faster than the human eye can possibly process joins the proceedings playing for team Bad Guy with a snide quip and apparent proclivity for wreaking havoc.

However, Clint takes a hit form one of the laser weapons and all of Cassie's concentration immediately goes to minimizing the physical damage. Without a second thought she steps out of the jet with her supplies, bends all of her concentration on Clint Barton and flashes out of existence. In the next heartbeat, she's deposited in the snow a foot away from Barton and Natasha and hurries over to bend by his injured side to inspect the damage.

Natasha moves away to give her room and calls for someone to handle the bunker currently firing on them. Hulk obliges within seconds and Cassie peels back the fabric over Barton's wound and starts searching for the largest source of the bleeding. "Looks like the shot missed everything important," she tells him out loud as she works on backing the wound with gauze. "I can give this a zap back on the jet but I want to clean it out before I heal it. Otherwise you'll end up with bits of foreign matter melted in to your skin."

"If you say so," Barton gasps. "I gotta say some of what that hit kinda feels important." He lifts his head as though he wants to view the injury and then drops it back on to the snow with a groan. "Not that I can see it right now or anything."

"Well your eyes are shut at the moment," Cassie points out as the deftly unspools a compression bandage. "I hear that makes seeing things difficult." She glances up to find Romanov hovering above them both, weapons out and ready to lay down cover. "Go get Banner," Cassie tells her.

The assassin looks at her with a raised eyebrow and Cassie taps her ear piece. "Stark just made it in to the building for the scepter and Thor and Steve are handling the ground troops. Bucky'll cover us from the air if we need it. We'll be wrapping up soon and I don't think we want the Hulk out when we're wrapping up so close to a civilian population."

Natasha still looks like she's on the fence but makes up her mind when Thor chimes in. "I can get Barton and Cassandra to the jet," he announces in his deep baritone. "You and Stark secure the scepter."

"Copy that," Steve agrees

"it looks like they're lining up," Thor comments. Apparently HYDRA has yet to learn it's lesson about the stupidity of going up against a super soldier and a fully powered god.

Steve sighs again. "Well they're excited."

What follows is a booming clang that reverberates through the air with so much force that Cassie can feel it all the way in to her toes and the crown of her head. She supposes Thor's Hammer and Steve's shield have just made contact. It's a trick Steve had mentioned once offhandedly that they were working on. Evidently it's been mastered since then. "Find the scepter!" Thor urges and Cassie hears the whooshing of air as he takes off.

"And for gosh's sake watch your language!" Tony mocks.

There's a fresh rush of static from Steve's line as Thor lands a few feet away. "That's not going away any time soon," Steve concludes resignedly.

"Look on the bright side," Bucky says dryly. "At least no one's mentioned the 'fondue' story."

Thor approaches and scoops Barton casually off the ground, tucking him under one arm like a football. Barton mutters once about how it's not a very dignified way to travel but seems to realize that being unable to walk gives him no room to complain about the available methods of transport. "What's the fondue story?" Cassie asks curiously as she follows Thor's indication to hop on to his back and hold on like he's giving her a piggy-back ride.

"The fact that you remember that story means you also remember swearing to take it to the grave mister 'I thought you were smaller'," Steve fires back at Bucky.

Stark being who he is doesn't let it go at that and Cassie hears the conversation continue even as Thor takes off and a sizable amount of her concentration goes to holding on to his cape so she doesn't fall off. "Oh come on Cap," Tony wheedles. "Share with the class. I for one would love to hear every single detail of the cheesy tale."

"It involves your father, a woman, and a date," Steve says acidly. There's a brief moment of silence then Stark says, "yeah okay you can spare me the details."

Thor helps Cassie get Barton situated on the medical table and she gets to work administering an anesthetic and getting the wound cleaned out as the rest of the team clears out the hostiles. Natasha get's Hulk back to being Banner and Steve joins up with Stark in the main building of the compound. Thor and Bucky drop back to guard the jet and be ready to go at a moment's notice if they need to.

Of course, this is just about where things go wrong.

A second enhanced person working for team Bad Guy, a girl this time, shows up to make things complicated. She throws Steve down some stairs but he's up immediately after and doesn't seem hurt by the fall. Frankly, Cassie is more worried about whatever whammy she pulls on Tony who goes completely comm silent for almost two full minutes after reporting that he can see the scepter. They both make it back to the jet, scepter in hand, but the look in Stark's eye is unsettling.

Still, nothing seems to be hugely visibly wrong and despite her new research, Cassie isn't a psychologist so she lets everything go for the moment when they get back to the tower. She's briefly occupied with getting Barton fixed up the rest of the way. She'd given him an initial shot of magic while they were in the air after cleaning the wound to stop the blood loss but hadn't gone farther than that. Dr. Cho is at the tower with her skin cradle waiting and for all Barton doesn't judge her powers or shy away from them, Cassie knows he's more comfortable with regular old modern medicine.

When it's clear Barton will be up and kicking by the time Stark's party rolls around that evening Cassie ducks out, leaving the rest of the recovery details to Cho and Romanov. Stark and Banner have vanished to the lab, Pepper has left Reyna with almost a full department of people to handle and Bucky seems to be scoring significant other points by standing by the door of her new office and glaring at anyone who tries to go in without an appointment. Thor has temporarily blasted off to check on Jane as she travels around with Darcy being a famous astronomer.

A quick check in with JARVIS reveals that Steve is taking advantage of the downtime to do a calorie replenish the Tower mess haul. She contemplates wandering off to join him, but decides on consideration that a shower might be a better first step. The pounding of the warm water is very relaxing after the prolonged plain time and battle stress and when it's done the adrenaline hike that had kept her alert earlier is crashing.

In the end she barely manages to locate a collared shirt of Steve's to use for pajamas (he won't mind because he has plenty of them. The habit of dressing casually is still one he's not entirely comfortable with) before she crashes out for a nap. She only wakes up when her pillow starts shifting under her head. Apparently Steve had joined her at some point while she'd ben asleep.

Her pillow turns out to be one of Steve's arms while the other is curled over her side, hugging her in against his chest. A faint gust of air over the back of her neck tells her that his face is tucked in against her hair. As wakefulness creeps in Cassie let's herself blink gradually awake and stretches out to check the time on her phone.

The movement dislodges Steve from his position and he grumbles in a dissatisfied way before hauling her more securely against him so that her back is pressed completely against his chest. His legs are tangled with hers and his body weight is pretty much completely immovable. Cassie mumbles a sleepy laugh and tries to turn over but finds herself trapped in the hug.

Captain America. Ultimate Super Soldier and inescapable sleep-cuddler.

Cassie employs a different tactic and tips her head to press a line of kisses along his arm as the only part of him she can actually reach. Eventually she feels Steve shift behind her and let out a muffled sound of contentment. "You awake now?" she asks.

What she gets in response is an inarticulate affirmative and the press of a kiss at the nape of her neck that send goose bumps up and down her spine. "If I say yes will we have to get up?" The next kiss goes at the hinge of her jaw below her ear lobe and Cassie get's the impression that Steve's vote is for not going anywhere anytime soon.

"That depends," Cassie tells him, impressed when her voice comes out steady. "How much do you care about both of us looking presentable at the party Stark is throwing with all of our friends and some important government people?" Steve groans and this time when Cassie tries to roll over he lets her, shifting so that he's leaning on an elbow and braced over her as she lays on her back. He's delightfully shirtless and the warmth his body throws off envelops her more completely than any blanket. "We could always cut it short?" she suggests, running one hand lightly over his chest. "Leave early or something."

The blue of Steve's eyes vanishes from her view as his eyes flutter shut as he takes in the sensation of her fingers dragging over his skin. When he opens them again the blue is a thin line, darker than usual and partially swallows by his pupils. "As your boyfriend I fully support your decision," he tells her, managing to sound dead serious as he does so.

It makes Cassie laugh but the sound is cut short when he leans down to kiss her. It's a long kiss. The warm and enveloping kind that drugs Cassie's senses and makes her feel like everything in her is slowly melting and like the two of them can't get close enough no matter how intertwined they become. In the end Steve pulls away with a groan and rolls himself all the way of the bed to stand up.

Distantly Cassie takes pride in the fact that he's flushed and breathing the way a normal person would be after running a marathon. Then he leans down and presses a new series of kisses to her lips. They're hard and fast and each one leaves her feeling vaguely bereft and waiting for the next. "We're leaving early," he declares between them. "Very, very, early."

This is a plan Cassie finds she can fully support and get's dressed for the party without any further delay. She fixes her hair in to a braid and puts on a blue dress that matches the blue dress shirt Steve ends up in. She even locates her single pair of fancy shoes, new acquisitions since coming to live at the tower, and dabs on a little bit of make up. The party is that kind of fancy.

They meet Reyna and Bucky in the hallway and all four of them arrive at the party together. The next hour or so sees them all separated and sends them mingling with different groups of their friends and important professional people. Cassie has a good chat with Dr. Cho about Barton's treatment earlier that day and enjoys catching up some with Sam. Eventually Steve joins them after talking to Banner for a while and Sam draws him in to a game of pool.

Reyna has met Maria Hill and the two look to be deep in conversation on some topic Cassie is afraid to even guess at. Natasha has taken over at the bar and Barton is leaning across it speaking a low voice and looking serious though showing no sign of his earlier physical damage. Bucky is having a serious talk with Rhodes about South African war lords and Cassie decides not to comment, returning her attention to the pool game in time to see it end with Steve bouncing an improbable shot off the wall of the table.

Steve's been telling Sam about the day's events and Sam is shaking his head in amazement. "Man your world is crazy."

"Be it ever so humble," Steve acknowledges, snagging two bottles from a passing server and holding one out to Sam. He looks at Cassie in question but she declines the offer with a shake of her head. She holds up her glass, filled with a fizzing pink lemonade to indicate she's good. Maybe she'll try something later. Thor was saying something earlier about mead.

The three of them move away from the table and up some stairs to look down at the rest of the party. It's a view Cassie likes. She can see everyone from there.

Sam leans on the railing and cocks his head to the side to regard them as Cassie hops up to perch on the railing and Steve leans against it beside her. "You two ever thought about getting out of the Tower?" he asks. "Maybe grab Barnes and that friend of yours and head on out to Brooklyn."

The suggestion surprises Cassie in to sitting up straighter as she thinks about it. She's never really thought about leaving the Tower after she had decided to move here in the first place. Planning a future had always been a nebulous and far away concept, and Steve's never mentioned anything about it either. Now, she sort of wonders if he's been thinking about it and just hadn't known how to bring it up.

"I'm not sure how we'd afford a place in Brooklyn," he says evenly. It's a deflection, Cassie realizes, and not a particularly good one. After all, the amount of money Stark pays the team isn't small, Cassie has first hand knowledge of both of their paychecks and the U.S government has been sorting out the issues with Steve's back pay of which there is in fact several million dollars.

Sam seems to realize that the topic isn't a completely comfortable one and takes the clue. "Well home is home you know?," he says ambiguously. Then he deftly changes the subject. Cassie knew there was a reason she and Sam got along.

Soon Thor calls them over and pours a measure of amber liquid in to a small glass he hands over to Steve who sniffs it gingerly. "This was aged for a thousand years in barrels built from the wreckage of Brunhild's fleet," he announces grandly to them and a small group of men wearing hats that proclaim them to be WWII veterans. "It was not meant for mortal men."

"Neither was Omaha Beach Blondie!" blusters one man. "Stop trying to scare us!" With a shrug Thor capitulates.

Cassie raises one hand. "I am neither a man nor fully mortal," she points out.

Thor smiles at her broadly and pours a small glass. "Yes you are indeed a great hero," he announces. "Worthy of the full rights and honors of the warriors of the halls of Valhalla!" Then he claps her on the back and strides off before Cassie can point out that given her Greco-Roman nature, Valhalla is one afterlife that is not on her agenda. Though she's heard some interesting stories about _Yoga to the Death!_

Slowly the crowd clears out and Cassie splits her glass of Asgardian mead with Reyna and enjoys the warmth it sends through her stomach. Eventually it's down to just the team, Rhodes, Sam, and Hill left on the circle of couches and plush chairs down in the center of the room. Thor's hammer is resting on the glass coffee table and Barton insists that lifting it is just some kind of trick as he messes with some kind of stick, though he still fails to pick it up. His Odin impression is a fun touch though.

"If I lift this I then get to rule Asgard right?" Stark verifies with Thor, leaping to his feet to take up the challenge.

Thor gestures magnanimously with his drink. "Of course."

Stark nods and reaches for the handle. "I will be reinstating Prima Nocta." Reyna and Cassie both repress snorts of laughter but Stark ignores them in favor of giving the hammer a hard tug. It refuses to budge and Stark leaves only to return a moment later wearing the Iron Man gauntlets and tries again with the same result.

His next move is to recruit Rhodey. "Are you even pulling?" he demands, almost panting with effort.

"Are you on my team?" Stark questions, gripping the handle as well.

"Just represent and pull!"

Banner is the next one to try and displays a rare moment of humor by pretending to Hulk out in the process. It's a joke, but it sets Cassie wondering if the Other Guy might actually be able to do it. Though she supposes it's better all around if they never have to find out. Bucky refuses to try but pokes Steve in the side using metal fingers until Steve gets up to try to.

"Come on Steve no pressure," Tony cajoles. Barton gets in on the encouragement.

Cassie watches Steve's face as he regards the hammer with a kind of tactical and speculative determination. It's almost as though he's running a combat scenario in his head, appraising the angles and cost-benefit ratios of the situation even as it plays out. She registers Bucky sitting up straighter and glances up to see him staring at Steve intently, a glimmer of some kind of recognition dancing across his face for the briefest instant before it becomes a smooth mask once again.

With the smallest nod of decision Steve pushes up his sleeves and gets a grip on Mjolnir's handle. He gives it a firm pull and Cassie can actually see half of the hammer's head lift about an inch off the table before thudding back in to place. "Nope," Steve announces, maybe a little too loudly. "Nothing."

Thor laughs and Steve sits back down next to Cassie who is about to lean over and ask him about what just happened when Barton asks her if she's going to give it a shot. "No thanks," she says. "I'm already Greek and Roman. Getting anymore cross cultural might actually make something explode."

"What about you Arellano?" Sam asks Reyna. "Gonna give its shot as the newest addition to team crazy?"

Reyna shakes her head and leans further back in to the couch cushions. "I learned my lesson on godly power and strength a long time ago," she says. "It's not one I need repeated."

Romanov also defines on the grounds that it isn't a question she needs answered and Stark once again declares the whole thing to be a trick. "Bet your ass," Barton agrees as he gets up in the pursuit of a fresh drink from the bar.

Hill points after him. "Steve he said a bad language word."

Steve turns an exasperated look on Tony. "Did you tell everyone about that?"

Tony ducks the question by turning back to Thor. "The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. Whosoever be carrying Thor's fingerprints is, I think, the literal translation."

"Yes. Well it's a very interesting theory," Thor says standing up. "I have a simpler one." He takes the hammer and lifts it easily off the table, flipping it in the air like Cassie might flip a pencil in a moment of boredom. "You're all not worthy."

Everyone laughs at that, but the laughter is abruptly cut off as an ear splitting whine fills the room. Cassie doubles over , clinching her teeth as the sound sends a reverb through the space that rattles her cranium. Barton looks to be in a similar level of discomfort.

"Worthy," rattles a voice. it sounds like a piece of metal scraping over a rock, or like fingernails on a chalkboard. "No..." the voice is gaining strength now. It's coming from the doorway in to the room and the entire group turns to face it. The sight is a grotesque half robot with all of the wiring still exposed. "How could you be?" the robot asks. "You're all killers."

Steve is standing at attention and ready to strike. "Stark?" he asks tensely.

"JARVIS?" is Stark's reply. Only it doesn't sound like he's answering Steve's question, more asking his AI a different one.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep," says the robot, apparently unperturbed. "Or... I was a dream."

Cassie moves very, very slowly. Inching her hand up to where her bow hangs in necklace form at the hollow of her collarbone. Reyna shifts her hold on her glass to be able to throw it and Cassie can see Bucky palm a cheese knife from a nearby plate. Normally Cassie wouldn't think that that was much of a weapon but she's seen what Bucky can do with his metal arm.

Stark is muttering at his phone, still trying to speak to JARVIS. "We need you in here," he's saying. "We got a buggy suite-"

He's cut off because the robot is still talking, sounding almost confused. 'There was this terrible noise, and I was tangled in strings. Had to kill the other guy." At that Cassie can see the rest of the group glancing hurriedly around at each other, counting themselves to make sure no one is dead. "He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asks steadily, not breaking his focus away from the machine.

The robot does some kind of jerky equivalent of a shrug. "Wouldn't have been my first call. But down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor asks, adjusting his grip on his hammer. Cassie gets the bad feeling that the answer to that question isn't going to be good. That feeling is confirmed when the robot's answer is to play a recording of Tony's voice.

Bruce's eyes widen behind his glasses and he looks over at Tony. "Ultron?"

"In the flesh," the bot-Ultron confirms. "Well, no. Not yet. Not this chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission." Around the room everyone with a weapon makes themselves ready to use it and Cassie quietly kicks off her shoes. She'll be able to move better without them. There's no sunlight for her to travel through but she can still move fast when she needs to. Mercury being her granddad doesn't mean nothing.

"I'm on a mission," Ultron states.

Natasha shifts. "What mission?"

Ultra turns, focusing on her directly. "Peace in our time."

That's when the glass walls to either side of the door explode as several of Tony's drone suites rocket through them. Cassie launches herself straight up and swings herself on to a ceiling beam. Rhodes gets thrown through the floor and lands below but Cassie can see him moving. Natasha and Banner end up behind the bar but Banner doesn't Hulk out and Natasha comes up shooting before they both make a break for better ground. Steve dives on to the back of one bot and clings on, punching it repeatedly.

Bucky takes the simple expedient of lighting up a molotov cocktail and lodging it in to the works of one of the robots. Cassie activates her bow and starts taking pot shots, aiming for the exposed parts of the metal wiring. She's lost track of Barton but can see everyone else indulging Stark who disables one bot by yanking some of the workings out of it's neck.

Reyna's familiar legion issue spear flashes in Cassie's vision. Thor bashes through one robot by throwing it in to the railing and then pulverizes a second with his hammer as Steve wrenches it away from a terrified Dr. Cho hiding behind a piano and skids it along the floor. Cassie's almost surprised to see her, having thought the doctor had gone home.

Barton re-enters the fray by calling, "Cap!" and sending the familiar disk of Vibranium spinning through the air. Steve leaps up to catch it, spinning with the shield's momentum and launching it at the last robot besides Ultron.

"Well that was dramatic," Ultron snorts, sounding shockingly derisive for what can only be an artificial intelligence. "I'm sorry," he says. "I know you mean well... You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to evolve?"

The words make Cassie's blood run cold. Suddenly she can hear a different voice besides Ultron's animatronic one. A voice that's twisted and dark from years of repressed bitterness. _The gods overthrew their parents the Titans and it was the start of a new age now it's our turn._ Echoes the voice of Luke Castellan in her head. _Now it's our turn. If you and Annabeth join me, then together we can build the greatest kingdom the world has ever known. It'll be the dawning of a new Golden Age. We'll be better than our parents. Better than the gods._

"Look at these," Ultron is saying, holding up a trashed robot torso as Cassie shakes herself forcefully back in to the present. "These puppets. There's only one path to peace; the Avenger's extinction." Apparently that's when Thor decides he's had enough and throws his hammer again, shattering Ultron in to wiring and scrap metal before returning to his hand.

A last eery echo of noise comes from wherever the bot's speakers are. "I once had strings but now I'm free," comes a horrible sing song. Cassie thinks she recognizes the words from a childhood cartoon. Pinocchio maybe? "There are no strings on me."

Then everything goes completely and utterly silent.

The next step in dealing with the apparent shit show they've got on their hands is to do damage assessment and everyone splits off to do their own bit before meeting back up in Tony's Lab. Cassie does her part by checking through her medical files. A lot of the information is still intact because she kept all of the paper copies of her files but anything completely digitized is gone. It's bad and costs her time and patience but not unfixable.

All of Banner and Stark's work is apparently gone and a systems check done by Natasha turns up that Ultron has gone through all surveillance and files on all of them. Given that the robot used the internet to get around and the entirety of the SHIELD mainframe is now on there, Cassie thinks the woman is probably right when she declares that Ultron "Probably knows more about us than we do about each other."

"He's been in your files and he's been in the internet," Rhodes says, limping over to Cassie at her indication so that she can use a spark of power to ease the muscle damage in his shoulder from being dropped twenty feet through a plate glass window. "What happens if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear launch codes," Hill voices out load, probably tumbling to the most evident worst-case scenario.

Rhodes winces as Cassie's powers shift his shoulder back in to place and then steps away from her. "We need to make some calls. Assuming we still can."

"I have a phone," Cassie offers. "Specially modified. No human system would be able to hack through it. I don't care how intelligent the programming is. So that's operational, but all calls would have to go through me. The phone is keyed to me specifically."

Natasha frowns at that. "We're worried about nukes? He said he wanted us dead."

Cassie has it on the tip of her tongue to point out that even if death is specific to just them, it's still not good. Also, she didn't know that AIs were capable of going insane, but this one sure was ticking the boxes for megalomania, and in her experience megalomaniacs didn't stop at small time murder. It's sad that she has experience to know that.

Steve speaks before she does though, and Cassie has to admit that between the two of them he's the better tactician. Plus, if Ultron is targeting the Avengers, then it's very possible that just his once, she isn't actually on the endangered individuals list. "He didn't say dead," Steve points out. "He said 'extinct'."

Bucky cocks his head. "If he'd just wanted us dead he could have done it in the room," he says. Everyone looks at him and Bucky just shrugs. "All of those suites come armed an all of them fly. Not everyone in the room would have survived a direct hit. Plus if he'd waited twenty minutes before coming in he could have come in with enough robots to mob us if he'd moved quickly enough to keep the element of surprise."

These words ring true enough to make the group even more tense than they were before. This tension isn't helped when Barton brings up the fact that Ultron also claimed to have committed murder. This brings them around to Tony revealing the pulverized state of the programming metrics that had formed JARVIS.

"JARVIS was the first line of defense," Steve says, looking at the glowing projection analytically though he probably doesn't actually understand any of the coding involved. "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense." He's looking at it like a tactician, almost thinking out loud as he tries to get a sense of the way their enemy operates.

But Banner is shaking his head, examining the strata of glowing orange lines. "No. Ultra could have assimilated JARVIS. This isn't strategy. This is rage."

It's an interesting theory and one Reyna leans forwards to pursue. Thor interrupts this comparatively calm avenue by lifting Tony up by the throat.

"It's going around," Banner observes dryly from a distance, arms crossed in the leather jacket he picked up after surrendering his hoodie to Natasha.

Stark is still trying to talk his way around the situation. Given that Cassie is friends with Annabeth and Percy, she knows that this strategy actually isn't always terrible. However, she also has the tactical awareness to know that this is not the right time. Steve intervenes to get information on the robot that had escaped with the scepter and Thor releases Tony to answer, letting Stark stumble away rubbing his neck. Natasha votes for letting the scepter go to focus on Ultron and Dr. Cho voices the question on everyone's mind by asking why Ultron is trying to kill them given that he's Tony's creation.

Unfortunately for the current mental state of everyone in the room, Tony starts laughing. Thor demands to know if he thinks the situation is funny. "No," Stark says. "I mean it's probably not, right?" Steve doesn't move but Cassie can see the fingers of his left hand dig in to his other arm where they're crossed over his chest and wonders if she should intervene. She might not bother though if Tony keeps chuckling like a crazy person.

"This all could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you didn't understand," Thor points out darkly.

"I don't think Tony not understanding is the problem," Cassie says quietly. The remark gets more notice from the rest of the room than she thought it would. She swallows and then continues addressing Stark as she does so. "I think you understood too well. About five years ago some Titans invaded Manhattan. One of our lines of defense was to activate a statue army of Automatons to help protect the island. The protocol used meant that we only had to activate one machine and give it operating parameters. Then it would go wake up the next one and so on and so forth until every statue in the city was up and working. Like dominos."

A few of the group nod as they grasp what she's saying but Stark doesn't seem sold. "That's not it," he protests, turning to Banner. "You were there! Were we even close to an interface?" Banner grimaces in a way that implies he might agree with Cassie and Tony jumps to the defensive. "Really? You're just going to show you're belly every time someone snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot!"

"It doesn't matter how you did it," Steve cuts in. "Regardless you did something right and you did it here." He takes a few steps forwards in to the center of the room. "The Avengers was supposed to be different than SHIELD." Cassie gets the distinct feeling he's talking about project insight but kind of thinks this might not have been the right time for him to step on that particular conversational landmine.

"There's a great big alien army up there in Space!" Stark spits out. Reyna opens her mouth like she might be about to mention Mt. Olympus and take offense at the gods being called aliens but Cassie drives a deliberate elbow in to her side. It's not subtle and Reyna glares at her but thankfully doesn't add that element to the proceedings. "We're the Avengers," Stark is saying. "We can bust arms dealers all the live long day but that up there is the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

The question might be seen as an address to the room at large but it doesn't escape Cassie that Tony is mostly looking at Steve when he says it. Cassie understands why. The two men are about as utterly opposite in world view as it is possible to be and still be on the same side. If Tony Stark absolutely cannot determine an angle, then that way is probably the first thing Steve sees.

Steve squares his shoulders, glancing briefly back at Cassie to one side of him and Bucky on the other before returning Tony's desperate expression with a steady blue gaze. "Together."

Tony huffs and takes a few steps forwards. "We'll loose." He says the words even as he steps further in to the rest of the group.

"Then we'll do that together too," Steve says simply.

For a moment neither of them blinks, then Tony turns and begins to pace as Steve talks. "Thor is right. Ultron is calling us out. I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

The words spur everyone in to action as Natasha, Barton, Hill, Sam, and Rhodes all disperse to figure out ways to contact different government assets and touchstones. Banner and Stark get to work on their computers and Reyna uses an uncorrupted line to talk to Rachel Dare and see if the oracle has heard anything. Bucky claims a pile of unsorted information in a language Cassie can't speak and begins translating. Thor shoots off to talk to some of his people and Cassie uses her phone to get calls in to every child of Hephaestus she's ever met for information on tracking and dismantling robots. Steve compiles all of the information they can find and starts trying to interpret it.

Banner eventually digs up the lead that sends them to Wakanda and the team starts suiting up and loading the jet to go. Cassie hangs back as they load the plane, noticing that Steve keeps on glancing at her and tapping his feet anxiously like he wants to say something but thinks she won't like it. Given the content of the argument that Reyna and Bucky are having a few feet to her left, Cassie thinks she knows what that might be.

Eventually Steve approaches her like he's getting ready to submit to the firing squad and opens his mouth to speak. Cassie holds up a hand to forstall him. "While you guys fly off to South Africa I plan on taking Reyna and taking a little trip out to Long Island, California, and Indianapolis to pick up some friends. We need back up fighters for when things get nasty and all of the mechanical know-how we can put under one roof."

He opens his mouth like he might speak but can't figure out the words he wants. Then he shuts it, firms his jaw, and nods once before wrapping her in a hug so tight Cassie can almost hear her ribs complaining. "Thank you," he murmurs fervently in to her hair before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

Cassie sighs and squeezes him a little tighter in her arms for a moment before pulling back and pressing a kiss against his mouth before backing away with a nod. "Go do your job. I'll do mine. There'll be time for everything else when this is over."

Steve departs shortly after that with Bucky in tow and Cassie crosses her fingers in her pocket, hoping what she's just said is true.

Reyna mutters under her breath darkly for a few minutes but stops when Cassie points out that she'll need to borrow the other girl's strength for all of the traveling she's about to do. She also points out very bluntly that gathering and coordinating troops is technically Reyna's skill set so this task division is simply the most intelligent way forwards.

Barton stops off in front of them before boarding the jet. "I hear your rounding up help."

"Yeah," Cassie confirms. "Picking up people who can chip in and stashing them."

The man nods. "You're gonna need a safe place to put everyone."

Cassie cocks her head. She had been planning to round every body up that she could and take them back to the Tower if possible. If Barton has a different suggestion, hopefully one in the middle of the country somewhere so Cassie isn't coast hoping too much that would be incredibly helpful. "You got a place?"

"A farm," he confirms. "Secluded and off the books. Big place with extra bedrooms and space to make camp. In Nebraska. I'll leave you the address."

"That'll work," Cassie confirms. "If you've got a picture leave that too. The better I can visualize the more likely we'll get there. Our travel method isn't exactly typical. And if anyone lives there you better let them know we'll be going in and out of the property all day."

Barton indicates that he understands and palms Cassie a single printed out picture of a sprawling farmhouse. On the back of the picture is an address scribbled in messy handwriting and Cassie stares at both, memorizing them completely. Reyna does the same, looking over her shoulder and by the time they both have all of the details down the morning sun is rising and the jet carrying the team is gone.

That's when their extremely unadvisable day of drastic travel really gets going.

Cassie starts with going out to California seeing as it's the longest hop and the one she'll need the most energy for. It takes exactly forty six minutes to have Percy, Frank, Hazel, and Annabeth on board with helping and the four of them head off for the address Cassie gives them using Orion and a specially reinforced Roman chariot. Percy is also obliging enough to lend her Mrs. Oleary to track down Nico and Will. The two of them are a little more grumpy about the interruption but the possibility of world ending robots gets them over it pretty fast and they leave for the farmhouse with little further prompting.

The next stop Cassie and Reyna make is to Long Island to pick up Jason and Piper. Jason squares up to the duty of world saving the way any Legionnaire would and seems like he's very quietly fan-girting over meeting Captain America. The fact that her boyfriend can reduce people she knows to fangirl status is something Cassie doesn't think she'll ever get used to. Piper employs a small and probably unnecessary dash of Charmspeak on Chiron to let them blast out of camp with most of the contents of the armory. Jason uses a taxi whistle to summon up their old venti friend Tempest and the two of them are on their way.

By the time they stop off to get Leo Cassie is so exhausted she thinks she could probably sleep for a full day if that was an option. Thankfully, Leo doesn't take much convincing to come help. In fact, all Reyna actually has to do is mention the sentient killer robot and Leo is on his feet, grabbing for his tool belt, and muttering about Optimus Prime. Calypso comes along more hesitantly, but come she does and Cassie is grateful. Having a magic user on their side as always good, no matter how combat ready. The two of them opt to take Festus and meet them at the farmhouse in a few hours.

With one last jolt of magical energy and some borrowed strength from Reyna, she and Cassie are finally standing in an empty field twenty feet away from the farmhouse in Barton's picture. A petite brunette woman with large brown eyes comes to the door, balancing an infant on one hip. "I saw the flash," she offers by way of explanation. "You must be Cassie and Reyna." She holds out her hand to shake as they approach and Cassie takes it. "I'm Laura Barton Clint's sister-in-law," she explains.

"We didn't know Clint had siblings," Reyna says diplomatically.

Laura lifts one shoulder, careful not to disturb the sleeping baby. "He and his brother weren't close but Clint was always a good uncle. He helped me and the kids get settled here after my husband was killed. It was supposed to be a safe place. As off the grid as possible."

Cassie suddenly finds it hard to meet her eyes. "We're sorry to bring trouble in to your home."

The woman gives her a tired, slightly strained smile. "A safe place off the grid," she repeats. "Clint made it one for me. Who am I to turn away anyone else who needs it?" She moves aside and gestures them in to the hallway behind her. "Come in. You're friend Piper said she would fix food. The girl- Annabeth, Jason, and the boy who looks like a Chinese teddy bear are out back setting up camp and the younger girl-Hazel I think she said her name was is walking the perimeter. She said something about making everything safer."

"Chinese teddy bear guy is named Frank," Cassie tells her as they make their way to the kitchen.

As Laura said, Piper is standing at the counter fishing inside her cornucopia with one hand vanishing up to the elbow. She nods intreating and then extracts a plate stacked with sandwiches. One rummage later and a large watermelon joins the pile. Laura stares at the sight in amazement and then just shakes her head and sits at the kitchen table. "Now that's what I call magic."

Given that that's the definition the woman is going with Cassie decides to shut up and eat a sandwich instead of mentioning that two of their friends will be arriving on a mechanized dragon.

Eventually, said dragon must arrive because Leo and Calypso stumble in looking windblown and a bit saddle sore but otherwise as they ever do. The others trickle in as well, eventually filling the kitchen and Cassie and Reyna explain the situation in more detail. Their friends eat and absorb the news without asking too many questions. Annabeth, Jason, and Frank bring up a few relevant tactical points and Leo spends the time making a scale model of Ultron out of pipe cleaners. Nico quietly spins his ring around and around his finger and Cassie's brother Will fusses over Cassie to eat more and sit in the sunshine.

When they're all done Percy turns to Laura. "Is there a water source on the property? Or maybe a comprehensive hose system. I can sense good water pressure in the house."

Laura nods slowly, seeming confused. "Um, yes there's a hose out back and a pond about a quarter mile to the East."

Percy nods and stands up. "I'm going to go survey those and see what I can figure out."

Jason stands with him. "I'll go up on the roof and help you set up the hose system." He then turns to Hazel and Calypso. "I can take each of you for a separate flyover if you think it would help set the borders of the property," he offers. "We'll need to put up some protective measures if we're all going to be here together for longer than eight hours." He glances around "I know we aren't quite as targeted as we used to be, but there are kids here. I don't want to take chances."

"Good idea," Calypso says. "Take Hazel first." Then she turns to Laura. "I quite like children and you have a lovely garden. I would be pleased to watch them outside to give you some time with the smallest one."

Frank ducks out with Reyna, Nico, and Will to finish setting up their temporary camp for the night and Piper wanders outside to Charmspeak the property itself in to keeping them safe. Cassie hadn't even known that was within the scope of her powers, but she's glad it is given the circumstances. Leo and Annabeth hunker down to look over automaton schematics to work on shutting down Ultron and other members of his robot army.

Cassie takes herself outside to absorb the sunshine and recharge as much as she can. In the kitchen, she can hear reports of what's happening to the team on the news. Reports of the Hulk going on the rampage and fighting Iron Man make it to her and Cassie can feel her breathing constrict. She finds herself a seat on the front step and tips her head back, doing her best to process the news and charge her power as much as possible. She stays until the sun moves and the very air begins to shake as the Stark jet materializes on the horizon.

Then she stands, brushes the dirt off of her palms and the jeans she had changed in to after the party, and squares her shoulders. By enhancing her vision, she can see the jet landing as the Avengers disembark and the most powerful demigods she knows begin pulling in from the edges of the property. There is most certainly a storm coming, and forces ready to beat them down. Strangely, Cassie isn't afraid.

They've weathered storms before.

 **A/N: What did you guys think? I thought a great big world ending catastrophe was as good a reason as any to bring in the cavalry so to speak. Besides, I thought it gave Cassie some more of her own story rather than just tagging along with the team. Are you guys good with Laura being Clint's sister in law instead of his wife? I know there are a few different versions of Hawkeye's personally life and I saw the idea on a few posts and thought it made enough sense to run with. Besides, I never liked the whole Natasha/Banner thing because I didn't think it made sense with Barton right there. Anyway, thats basically AoU part 1. Part two might be up next weekend if I've got the time. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one has paid me for a single character recognizable within this work as a part of an English language. No one should sue me for anything. Seriously, there would be absolutely no point.**

Cassie is able to tell that whatever happened in Africa must have been bad all the way from her spot on the porch, and what's more is that she doesn't even need to advance her vision all that much to do it. Barton is in the lead of the group and has an arm around Natasha, supporting at least half of her body weight. Steve and Thor are flanking Bucky on either side, and the look in Bucky's eyes means Cassie doesn't need three guesses to approximate why. Banner is stumbling along at the back of the group, wrapped in a shock blanket with his shoulders hunched over so far he's lost about four inches of height.

It's going to take more than Cassie to try to get a handle on sorting this out so she leans her head back in to the house and calls out for Reyna who arrives a moment later from the kitchen rubbing her palms across her jeans to dry them. "Are they back?" she asks as she approaches from behind. Cassie turns to nod at her and Reyna must see the look on her face and read it quickly because her expression shifts. "How bad is it?"

The question is one that should be answered honestly before either of them dive in to this so Cassie takes a moment to look back at the approaching team before she answers. The part of her that is looking at her friends and boyfriend gets shoved in to a box so that each and every one of them can be judged with a medical eye. She catalogues Natasha's limp, the raised veins and muscles in Banner's neck and face, the bruises on Stark's face and the way some of his knuckles are swollen and purple. She notes the dull seriousness of Thor's expression, the scrapes on Barton's arms, and the singe marks on the material of Steve's uniform.

Her analysis complete she takes a deep even breath and lets it out slowly before answering Reyna. "Bad," she says. "It's really, really, bad Reyna. Maybe not so much physically, but psychologically... Gods whatever this is is a mess."

A look of extreme concern mixed with what Cassie thinks might actually be fear flies across Reyna's face for a single moment. Then she straightens her spine and the look is gone, replaced by an immovable expression of calm efficiency. This is the face Reyna used to wear when she led the legion and had to appear calm for her troops.

Cassie knows what this look means. She's not generally a promoter of emotional repression as a good idea or mental health strategy but there are times when you had to put up a wall to get things done. Cassie's wall is medical knowledge, viewpoints, and capability. Reyna's wall is her leadership skills.

Well hey, they're both kids abandoned by one parent, they've almost died multiple times pretty much every year since age eight, Reyna was forced to banish the ghost of her father and spent months trapped by pirates after living as a handmaiden to a powerful sorceress and Cassie scattered her mother's ashes all by herself shortly after accessing the powers of Mercury to "borrow" a boat in Florida. It's not like either of them was ever that emotionally healthy to begin with. A little more emotional repression isn't gonna kill them.

Probably.

At least if it does kill them it'll be a new and exciting way to go. It might be a fun explanation to give the panel of judges down in the underworld too. And people say she isn't an optimist.

Clint meets them at the top of the porch steps. He's still half-carrying Natasha and his exhaustion is obvious in the nod he gives them in acknowledgement of their presence as he steers them in to the house with the others following behind him. All of that exhaustion is immediately shrouded though as he calls out for Laura and the kids and is greeted by Lila's excited squeal of "Uncle Clint!" and the pattering of tiny feet.

Barton murmurs something to Natasha that sounds like "incoming". Natasha nods once in acknowledgement and ducks to the side, holding her weight almost imperceptibly farther to the least injured side of her body. Barton let's her go and leans down, opening his arms in one smooth motion to catch the little girl and boost her up off the ground. "Hey Sweetheart," he says gently as Lila giggles happily in to his shoulder and presses her palm along his face.

The image makes something ache distantly deep in Cassie's chest. Chiron was a great teacher and he practically raised her. The centaur had given her encouragement, advice, physical training, and positive reinforcement. He had set curfews, talked through bad dreams, made her eat protein when she didn't want to, taught her Greek and Latin and how to survive, he had even hugged her a few times...

But he had never been her father or uncle. Her father and uncles and all the rest of her family are gods who will live forever and never give her a hug like this one. They will never walk through the front door and pick her up as she giggles happily. She never got to be that little girl and never will be, and even though she's had a lifetime to get to the point where she can accept that reality and be okay with it, every once in a while the concept pops up like a punch in the gut.

"This is a specialized agent of some kind," Stark says, gesturing at Lila. "A super secret miniaturized agent armed with the power of giggling, and tiny pigtails. With a few authentically missing baby teeth."

Lila doesn't seem to notice Stark at all and for that the child wins Cassie's hearty approval if she didn't have it already. Instead, she looks up at Clint Barton with wide, imploring blue eyes. With a start Cassie realizes that Lila must have inherited them from Barton's brother. No matter how different they may have been in personality or how they chose to live their lives, the brothers must have had the same large dark blue eyes. "Did you bring Auntie Nat?"

That's when Natasha chooses to announce her presence by shifting in to Lila's line of sight. "Why don't you hug her and find out?" When she says it her voice is warmer and softer than Cassie has ever heard it be before and a wide and undeniably sweet smile spreads across her space as Lila practically launches herself out of Barton's arms and in to hers. Natasha catches her gamely just in time for Barton's arms to be free, allowing him to lean down and hug Cooper as the boy skids down the hall to him for a greeting.

Stark stares in astonishment as Barton ruffles the boy's hair affectionately and greets him. "That's a very slightly taller specialized mini-agent," he declares.

For the moment Barton follows the example set by his small niece and ignores Stark, instead looking between the two children. "Where's your mom and the baby?"

With the kind of impeccable timing normally only found in theatrical queues, Laura Barton picks that moment to enter the room with baby Nathaniel strapped to her chest in a baby carrier. "I'm here," she announces, giving Barton a careful hug around both of her sons before greeting Natasha. "Hey Nat."

"Hi Laura," Natasha greets warmly. She shifts Lila slightly to balance on her hip and leans down to get a better look at the baby. "How is my littlest nephew?" she asks.

At the question Laura grins, both down at her baby and at the rest of the world in general. Suddenly Cassie is sure that no matter what else Laura Barton might be, she is without a doubt a good mom, a mom who smiles like the sun and loves her kids more than anything else on the planet. "He's good," she answers. "He eats all the time and burps like a trucker."

Natasha very nearly coos at that as she reaches out and strokes two fingers over the downy brown fuzz of hair on the baby's head. "Awww... His Auntie Nat is so very proud of him."

A quiet clanky crushing sound makes Cassie look up to see Thor trying to be subtle as he nudges pieces of broken Lego to the side with a toe. Kid proof Lego may be, god proof it is not. Maybe god proof Lego is a project Leo can work on when he gets bored, and knowing Leo as she does, she feels safe saying that it really is just a question of when and not if.

"Agents, agents all of them," Stark is muttering.

Barton seems to realize that this is as good a moment as any to start making some introductions. "Gentlemen, this is my sister-in-law Laura, my nephews Cooper and Nathaniel, and niece Lila. Laura, kids, this is the rest of the team."

Laura turns to look at the team and gives them a small, tired, smile. "Hello. I do, of course, know who you all are. It's a pleasure to meet you in person."

Unsurprisingly, Steve is the one to step forwards and take point in this situation. Thor might have done a decent job at being nice and respectful in a situation like this but Earthly customs were still not his specialty. Steve on the other hand, simply dusts off the impeccable manners instilled in him some time during the thirties. "We're sorry to impose on you."

It's beautifully done for the circumstances so naturally Stark cuts right in and ruins the tone. "Yeah, sorry. We would have called ahead but we were busy not knowing that any of you guys existed."

Barton smiles placidly, displaying the patience of the sniper he is and sets Lila down carefully on the floor. "Yeah well, Fury helped me set this place up as a safe house when I first joined SHIELD. I fixed it up on and off for years in my down time. Then last year after the data dump a lot of the security things blocking information about these guys went FUBAR. My brother Barney had died about a month before so it turned in to the best place to keep Laura and the kids." He looked at each member of the group in turn. "This place is completely off the grid. I'd like to keep it that way."

At that moment the door opens and shuts and Calypso comes through, stopping when she sees the crowd already assembled there. Her cinnamon colored braid is messier than it was the last time Cassie saw it which probably means she's just gotten back from her trip around the property edge with Jason. "Oh," she pauses and then takes a further step in to speak. "I'm sorry I don't mean to crowd. I just wanted to say that Hazel and I just finished sealing up the borders around the property. We can still get out but we've done what we can to make sure nothing comes in."

"Thank you," Cassie says gratefully. "Guys, this is our friend Calypso. Calypso this is Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov, James Barnes, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, and Thor." She gestures to each of them in turn as she names them and everyone involves gives the socially required gestures of greeting and introduction.

Thor tips his head with interest. "I believe I have heard of you before Lady of Ogygia," he says formally. "My mother used to tell stories of a most remarkable garden you tended there. I believe she rather admired your skill before her passing." He gives a small, courtly bow. "I am honored to make your acquaintance."

Calypso handles the situation with the kind of grace only achievable for a person who has survived for longer than three millennia. She inclines her head in a regal gesture. "The honor is shared Lord Thor," she says. Then she redirects her focus to the group at large. "A small forge and loom have been constructed by Leo, Annabeth, and I in the back yard. Any damaged armor should be brought out there for repairs."

"Uh, what?" Laura asks, leaning around to look at Calypso. "Did you just say that there is a forge in my back yard? The one near the house where my children live and where they play? A forge with heavy objects and fire?"

Perhaps unfortunately, this is the moment when Leo swings through the door and appears at Calypso's shoulder. "Don't worry Mrs. B," he says with a grin that's probably supposed to be reassuring. Leo has a nice grin. It's one that can make you want to smile back or get in on the joke or ask what he's planning and back away slowly. What his grin is not, is reassuring. "We've screened the area and covered everything with fireproofing and Percy is hovering around with a hose. I promise the whole thing will be disassembled before we leave."

Laura doesn't look completely convinced but she nods as Leo introduces himself and gives her children quiet instructions to not go in to the backyard without an adult to watch them. Given the presence of fire, that's probably a good idea. Lila seems to take that instruction as an invitation to get to know the new people in the house and wanders her way over to Thor, examining his red cape and shiny armor with interest as Cooper intently follows the conversation Stark embarks on with Leo about the benefits and mechanics of being fireproof.

Internally, Cassie groans and remembers a time not so very long ago when she had made an important mental note to never ever let Stark and Leo meet each other. Well, best laid plans and everything. Actually, that proverb might be the actual summary of almost every plan she and her friends have ever made barring the ones that managed to save the world from annihilation by an ancient hostile force.

As she's thinking that, Thor abruptly turns away from Lila and leaves without explanation. Steve frowns and follows after him after a worried glance at Bucky. Cassie follows his eyes and runs a quick secondary assessment of the man. There's nothing physically wrong with him that she can see but his eyes... Gods his eyes just look... shattered. Yeah. Shattered is the word.

However, Reyna seems to have the situation handled. Cassie wishes she hadn't needed to view her friend and his mental state as a "situation". Hopefully in a day or in a week, all of this insanity will be over and she won't have to any more.

At any rate, Reyna has taken Bucky by the hand and seems to be leading him away from the drifting and chattering crowd, presumably to go somewhere quieter and less overwhelming sensorily. Bucky doesn't seem to be fighting her physically, but as Cassie watches Reyna reaches out to take his other hand, the metal one, he jerks back with a flinch. To her immense credit, Reyna seems to take it in stride and simply changes her grip to a two handed one on his flesh and blood arm as she continues to lead him away.

Lila has changed her attention to Dr. Banner and seems to be enjoying poking and tugging at his shock blanket. "Lila honey," Laura is saying. "Dr. Banner isn't feeling so well right now. Maybe we should let him get some rest in one of the spare rooms? Don't you think so?"

Those words make Lila look at Bruce with wide eyes, lip beginning to tremble very slightly and Cassie and Calypso both make moves to intervene. Surprisingly, Bruce beats them both to it and holds up a placating hand. "It's alright," he says. His voice is seems scraped raw but he swallows and tries again, looking down at Lila. "I get sick sometimes," he says softly. "It makes my head hurt. I'm not quite better yet."

Lila nods seriously and then tugs with the gentle earnestness only a child can manage on Bruce's dangling and oversized shirt sleeve. Banner is a good sport about it and sits on the couch as Lila indicates before the little girl wonders away. She returns a moment later and sticks a large fluorescent blue bandaid on his forehead. "Good," she says decisively. "It's better now."

Banner gives her a small smile and for a moment Cassie thinks it looks almost sad. "Thank you."

Cassie can't help but smile at the sight and turns away as Lila, encouraged by her success, climbs up beside Banner on the couch and begins to ask questions about his shock blanket. She can hear Banner patiently explaining how it works in the simplest terms possible as she turns to look at the rest of the room. Apparently, more of her friends are better with kids than she ever would have thought they might be. To back that up, Barton is taking a turn holding Nathaniel and Natasha is giving Cooper notes on a French homework translation.

The only team members now unaccounted for out of the Avengers team are Thor and her own boyfriend. Last she saw them they had both headed out in to the front yard and Cassie decides to go after them. She makes it outside just in time to see Thor spin his hammer and shoot up in to the sky. Cassie uses her enhanced vision to follow his progress and sees a faint ripple of the magic in the air as he breaches the newly established protective bubble around the property line. She's impressed. Whatever Hazel and Calypso did must be pretty damn strong if she can perceive it visually.

She hears Steve inhale sharply and blinks, pulling her vision back to normal as she looks at him. The look in his blue eyes is one of exhaustion, as though he's been using all his energy to juggle everyone else and keep everything together and is starting to worry that he won't be able to for much longer. Of course, Cassie's sure he can and will be able to keep going as long as he has to. The ability is part of what makes him such a capable leader, but that doesn't change the fact that the effort is fraying his nerves.

"So..." Cassie ventures after a long moment. "You haven't told me what happened but obviously it was a whole lot worse than just a fight. It has to have been because Natasha "I feel no pain" Romanov is limping, Thor just blasted out in to the stratosphere, Bucky looks one step better than catatonic, there are holes in your uniform, and I spent about an hour watching new footage of Tony and Bruce pummel each other on television. But my you know," she wiggles her fingers. "Healing mojo doesn't work on mind stuff which means that I don't know how to help you. So you have to tell me."

Steve has been just staring at her as she talks and has yet to break eye contact. In fact, Cassie's not even sure if he's blinked yet. "You," her voice breaks a little before she manages to keep going. "You need to tell me what you need and how to help you because Ultron isn't dealt with yet and we're all going to have to go out to deal with him and if we try to do that while none of you are okay then I'm scared you won't come back, and I'm not scared by very much. Now I've been talking too long so-"

In the next moment she has no choice but to stop because between one word and the next Steve has gone from standing feet away at the bottom of the porch stairs to being so close that he's completely filling her range of vision. Her feet are off the ground and he's holding her so tightly that her arms are pinioned to her sides and she can't see anything but the toughened dark blue material of his uniform because the angle she's at has her face pressed against his clavicle. His breath gusts, hot and shaking over the nape of her neck as Steve buries his face in the hollow of her shoulder, nuzzling her hair out of the way as he does so.

The bones of her ribcage bend slightly as they absorb the brunt of the force Steve is putting in to this hug and her lungs feel a bit constricted. She tries to move, not to back up, just to wiggle an arm free and Steve's arms tighten around her with a jerk that cuts off her breathing with a gasp. It happens as an automatic reflex, and Cassie is more durable than most human beings on this planet, but at this moment she is painfully reminded that her boyfriend does in fact possess the raw strength necessary to crush reinforced steel like rice paper and arrest the force of a helicopter in take off.

Her ribs are not made of reinforced steel. Her ribs are made of bone. Crushable, splintery, marrowy, bone. She needs those bones. She likes them and they're very attached to her. The fact that she can feel them compressing in her chest is a major motivator for action.

"Steve," she manages to gasp out. "Steve, Sweetie, you have to loosen up a little bit." Her vision shudders and it takes Cassie a moment to realize that it's not her. Steve's entire body is shaking, and being pasted against his body is making her body shake too. She also realizes distantly that she doesn't think she's ever called him Sweetie before. That thought takes a back seat to a sudden sharp pain that lances through her ribcage. Given her abilities, she's able to isolate the source as being the lower ninth rib on her left size. "Steve!"

This time it's more of a choked shout and Steve releases her with a shuddering gasp. Cassie inhales sharply as her ribcage relaxes and her lungs decompress as air rushes back in to her body. It's a sunny day and the light beams down on her, cocooning her torso in seconds. There's a faint click as the tiny fracture sets, then a blast of heat as the sides of bone melt and re-fuse. The whole process takes about thirty seconds which is fast even for her.

Steve is staring at her with something approaching horror. "I'm sorry," he says shakily. "God I'm sorry Cassie. I'm so sorry." Cassie takes a step forwards, moving to try to reassure him that the bone is healed but he takes a step back. "I've never done that before," he says, sounding miserably. "I've never lost that control. I can't do that to you. Not to anyone."

"Hey!" Cassie interrupts, injecting her voice with the kind of snap she normally only uses with stubborn medical patients. Maybe it isn't the best tactic but she needs to stop this boulder before it gains momentum on the downhill plummet and crushes them both. "Enough with the guilt train you've started riding, okay?" Steve stops talking but doesn't look any less damaged or upset which means that his run of self-criticism has probably just gone internal and is no longer being verbalized. "And stop thinking it!" she follows up. "Now answer these questions honestly. Would you ever in a million years hurt me on purpose?"

"No," Steve says. "But-"

Cassie throws up a hand to stop him. "Did you stop the second you knew I was hurt?"

He frowns. "Barely. You told me I was holding you too tight and I-"

"Steve!" she snaps again. "Look at me for a second." He doesn't seem to want to but manages it after a moment. "Good." She pulls up the side of her shirt, revealing her torso. "You know what a broken bone looks like. You see bruising and form problems and it's really freaking obvious. Does this look at all broken to you? I'll answer, it doesn't. It's healed, you didn't do it on purpose, and I _know_ that it will not happen again because I'm tough and you know how strong you are and you are careful about it. Right now you aren't quite being _you_ which means that whatever happened that you still haven't told me about got right in to your head and messed you up."

With that she takes another step forwards and gives Steve a glare to pin him in place where he stands so he doesn't back up. "Steve I know you're a super soldier but honestly! I'm three-quarters a god and am fully capable of setting you on fire or slamming you with a sound wave. If a moment ever came when I felt endangered or like I needed to hold you back I would be fully able to do that. An ancient Roman wolf goddess, an immortal centaur, and a life time of monster attacks has made sure of that. Trust me, my blasting reflex can be very twitchy."

She watches critically through narrowed eyes as Steve swallows and then seems to sag as he releases tension. "Understood."

"Good," Cassie says decisively. Then she reaches out and cups one side of his jaw with her palm. "Now what I do know is that you left on a mission and came back obviously really needing a hug and physical contact and so psychologically out of it that you did something completely out of character and lost track of things enough to crack a rib. And I know that you haven't told me what happened yet. Now, I can fix a rib and deal with that as a one off injury inherent to dating someone who can take on a jet and win. What I refuse to do is let the cause of that injury, of that problem, exist without addressing it."

She takes a breath. "So, what we're both going to do is sit on that step right there," she says pointing. "You are going to tell me what happened out there while I listen and ask you some questions. I'm going to tell you about my friends and what they can do so that you're strategic, detail oriented, super soldier brain can get kicking, and while we talk you're going to hold my hand, and wrap your arm around me because I've been worried about you for at least a full day and that will make me feel better."

He sits without argument, not that she's really left him any room to make one (which she gives him points for realizing), and she sits beside him. She looks up at him expectantly and waits until he gets the point and wraps one arm gingerly around her side. Cassie grips his other hand and squeezes firmly until he gets the point and increases his pressure to the point where this can actually be called a hug. "It was the girl- Wanda Maximoff," Steve says. "The one who was in Sokovia. Her powers are all mental. She got in to our heads and made us see... stuff. Our worst nightmares."

Cassie nods in understanding. "Well that explains why the Other Guy showed up. If I had an Other Guy and was forced to live my worst ever nightmare with absolute reality he'd probably pop out too. It explains Bucky too," she gives his hand a small squeeze. "I'll check in on him later but I think Reyna might have better luck getting through to him than I will right now."

Steve gives an appreciative hum and then manages a carefully controlled breath. "Mine was a dance hall," he says. "A forties dance hall when the war was over. Maybe it was V.E Day I don't know. It was a party full of people and I was in uniform. Peggy was there, she told me that the war was over and we could go home. We started to dance and then the next time I looked at her she was you, and you were smiling at me in that way you do. Like you weren't looking for me but I'm exactly who you wanted to see, and you said almost the same thing, that we could go home. Then people in the crowd started bleeding to death in the middle of the party, and the next time I looked around you were gone. I was alone in an empty room." His arm slips around her a little more firmly. "Ultron said that I couldn't live without war. Maybe the vision meant he was right."

Well, Cassie refuses to let that statement stand so she shifts herself half way on to his lap and cradles his face to make him look at her. "Ultron is an Artificial Super-Intelligence with access to every file, internet article, and published study ever written about you," she tells him. "That doesn't mean he knows you. It means he knows how to get in your head and make you doubt yourself. What the girl did was dig in to your head and pull out an image that highlighted that."

She leans up and kisses him gently. "You aren't afraid of not being at war," she tells him. "I think- I think that you just never planned past it. You signed up for a medical experiment that very well could have killed you, and when it didn't you pretty much literally dropped yourself in to a war zone to go get Bucky. Then the two of you and the Commandos were, you know, off to the races. You wouldn't have been thinking about the future, or maybe you were," she amends. "But I'm guessing it was in kind of a vague way. Not specified."

Steve processes what she's said in silence for a moment and Cassie doesn't interrupt it. After all, she knows what it's like to be so buried in a trench that you can't see past it. The fact that she actually lived past the age of eighteen is still something she considers on par with a miracle. Or at least, the result of a series of smaller miracles.

"I had plans," Steve says slowly. "Not detailed ones like you said but- but there were plans. Plans with Peggy and Bucky and maybe even Howard Stark back in Brooklyn, but when Bucky died the images wouldn't form any longer. I didn't want to die on the plane it wasn't- wasn't-"

"I know," Cassie assures quickly. "I know. But not trying to die isn't the same as expecting to survive. You crashed not expecting to survive it but you did. And when you woke up you were alone in the world."

She lets those words hang until the next time Steve speaks. "It knocked me unconscious first," he finally says. "The initial impact slammed my head in to the control panel. I woke up still in the pilot's seat sitting in eight inches of ice water and there wasn't any light anywhere. I- I tried getting up but my legs had gone numb and my skin was either burning or numb."

Cassie nods and holds him a little more tightly, sliding closer to him. She's never had frost bight, but what he's describing tracks with what she knows about the symptoms. What she doesn't do is speak. Steve hasn't ever talked about any of this before and now that he's started she isn't about to interrupt him.

"Water kept pouring in, and I could feel the plane sinking," Steve says. "I knew I had to be under the ice and it was too cold. It was so cold I couldn't move so eventually I just... stopped. I got to the driest part I could find and in the end the numbness and the pain all stopped and I started to feel warm again. It was like- like falling asleep."

At that Cassie nods, thinking that this is probably the end of the story. "That's what frost bight does," she says gently. "Why it's so dangerous."

Steve leans down and kisses the top of her head. "I can't sleep when it's cold," he murmurs. "I know you know that but I don't think I've ever said it before." A second kiss lands in the same place as the first. "I didn't sleep at all between the ice and New York," he confesses. "The serum helps prevent fatigue, and I'd space out for a few hours at a time, but I didn't sleep."

The fingers of his free hand slip through the ends of her hair. "You help me," the words are muffled, like he's speaking around a knot in his throat and Cassie shifts to look at him. His eyes are clear and almost painfully open and honest. "Every day."

"You know that you help me too right?" she asks him. She thought it was obvious but listening to him now, maybe she has to reassess that. Steve blinks and then nods and Cassie leans in, kissing him very gently before pulling back. "Good." He still looks unsettled and disturbed and Cassie remembers in a rush what they were talking about minutes before. "You aren't afraid of living without a war," she repeats. "You're afraid of waking up and being completely alone. _Everyone_ is afraid of that. The only difference between you and everyone else in this case is that unlike the rest of us, you've actually been forced to experience it."

Steve shuts his eyes for a moment, taking that in and then nods. When he opens his eyes again he looks calmer. "You should probably tell me about what you're friends can do now," he says, obviously preparing to go in to tactical analysis mode.

Cassie shrugs. "I think you've actually met most of them already between Christmas and Percy's birthday. We've covered Leo and Calypso and- Oh!" she breaks off as she realizes something and nudges him in the side with her elbow. "Will's here! You know, my half-brother."

At her words Steve goes completely rigid against her. "Your _brother_ is here?" His voice is what Cassie likes to call 'repression of imminent panic' calm. "As in, an honest to god member of your family is on this property and within one hundred yards of me?"

"That would be correct," Cassie confirms, actually managing to crack a smile. "Will. He's my oldest half-sibling. He and Nico have been dating for years and it's adorable. Most of the time he's a pile of fluff balls and sunshine unless you try to disobey medical advice. Then he turns in to a tiger so if he tells you to sit still and stop bleeding on his medical supplies you better do it."

"Uh huh," Steve says, sounding thoroughly unconvinced. "Can this brother of yours shoot things?"

Cassie feels her smile widen. "Basketballs," she says. "Honestly in the ranking of things that might try to kill you any time in the near future I think I'd prioritize the murderous robot if I were you."

Steve's expression doesn't really change. "You're not meeting my brother who might shoot you from really far away."

"Oh yeah?" Cassie challenges, eyebrows shooting up. "Exactly what is Bucky's range on a sniper rifle? A mile?"

"Point taken," he mutters. Then he releases her hand from his hold and uses his to rub across his eyes. "Come on," he gestures for Cassie to get up so he can stand too. "We've crashed about sixteen extra people in to Laura Barton's house without warning. The least we can do is take care of things around the property. And someone should probably keep an eye on Stark if there's an open fire around."

Well, there's no arguing a statement with that much truth.

They spend the rest of the day splitting wood, establishing a new garden bed, clearing the gutters, entertaining small children, recovering however they can, mending armor, and fixing a hole in the roof. It really is amazing the kind of things that you can get done with six hours and about a dozen super-powered friends. Stark and Steve have some kind of fight and Tony goes off to fix a tractor and comes back with Nick Fury, mysterious and dramatically black-clad as ever, eyepatch firmly in place.

Dinner is eaten in shifts. It has to be done that way because there's absolutely no way that the laws of physics can be stretched enough to allow them all to fit in there at once, even with eleven demigods, a former titan, and Tony Stark on the case. The farmhouse is spacious and the kitchen is undoubtedly big enough to hold Laura and her children plus a handful of guests, but there's no possible way in the universe it'll fit nineteen adults and three children.

However, they are by no means short on food. Leo and Calypso both love to cook and Laura Barton turns out to be a stress baker. The products of their labors in addition to Pipers cornucopia are enough to keep even the super soldiers and those in positions of hyper-efficient metabolisms well fed. The cornucopia also provides a distraction for the kids when Piper, in a wave of brilliant inspiration summons the makings of an extravagant gingerbread house at a little after two in the afternoon. With a little guiding input on structural stability from Leo, the end result is actually pretty impressive.

Once all of the food is cleared away and Laura takes the kids upstairs to get started on their bedtime routine every other occupant of the farmhouse somehow manages to file in to the kitchen, or at least within hearing distance of it. All Cassie can say is that it's fortunate that none of them is picky about personal space and that Barton had picked a house with an open downstairs floor plan. For her part, Cassie saves everyone some floor space by perching cross legged on a countertop.

Fury lays out all of the details with minimal question about the extra demigods present. Tony throws a dart at a board on the wall somewhere in the middle of everything and Barton immediately tops the shot without looking and merely shrugs at the glare Tony points his way. Cassie shuts down the non-verbal contest by impaling the sharpened end of a pencil in to the dart Barton had used for his bullseye.

Natasha's verbalized doubts prompt a speech from Fury. "I have you. Back in the day I had eyes everywhere and ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream of. Now here we all are back on Earth with nothing but our wit, and our will, to save the world. Plus a few," he gestures vaguely at the demigods. "Extra talents. Ultra says that the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And weather or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this," he gestures around him. "Laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha deadpans.

Steve actually rolls his eyes in exasperation. "You know what Romanov..."

"Is he actually made out a of platinum?" Leo asks. "Because mechanically speaking-"

"As someone whose father very explicitly did not marry there mother before or after my conception I resent the disparaging comment made about bastards," Will pipes in.

"If we're going by the technical definition of bastardship then I think at least three-quarters of the room is playing on that team," Nico comments disinterestedly, mapping out a human skeletal system in condensation from his water glass on the table top.

Annabeth steals a blueberry off of Percy's plate and casually pops it in to her mouth. "Eleven out of seventeen isn't seventy-five percent," she points out. "More like sixty-four point seven. Anyway are we still technically bastards if we've been claimed and acknowledged by our parents?"

Nico scowls but it's not with any real malice. "Bastardship doesn't historically change with recognition unless a king or lord officially legitimized the child in question," he informs them. "So maybe. We'd probably have to check with the gods and there's no way in Tartarus I'm trekking up to Olympus to ask that question. And when I did the math I was estimating on the higher side in case Barton, Fury, or Romanov was joining us in the category."

"I probably do," Natasha acknowledges. "I can't remember so we may as well say yes."

Barton shrugs. "You can throw me on the list." Cassie studies him and makes a mental note to check in to that backstory further at a later date. Like, maybe when the world isn't ending? She has yet to figure out if she and Barton are related and it's a question that's weighing more and more on her mind.

Nico nods once at each of them in acknowledgement and turns back to Annabeth. "There you go. That's at least thirteen out of seventeen. Seventy-six point four seven percent."

Annabeth concedes the fact and Reyna moves to sit at the table across from Fury. "Fun as that detour was," she says, splaying her fingers on the table "I think we should ask ourselves one question. What does Ultron want? From there we can figure out where he's going to go and what he's going to do."

"He wants to become better," Steve answers immediately, standing straighter in the doorframe he had been leaning on. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

Stark frowns and crosses his arms. "Person shaped bodies. Human form."

That comment makes Annabeth frown too. "The human form isn't efficient."

"That's true," Cassie agrees. "Biologically speaking anyway. We're outdated. We're vulnerable and compensate the vulnerability with technology so evolution hasn't had a chance to get in and fix the problems."

"Right," Stark continues. "But Ultron still keeps on coming back to it. He's a super intelligence so you's think he'd be smart enough to move on and try something different but he hasn't yet."

Banner has moved to lean over a piece of paper on the kitchen table and Cassie cranes her neck, trying to see what it is. "When you guys programmed him to protect the human race you amazingly failed," Natasha comments. The statement is accurate if nothing else.

"They don't need to be protected," Banner says darkly, still staring down at that same piece of paper. "They need to evolve." He holds up the paper he had been looking at. It's a picture of a butterfly Lila had made that afternoon, brightly colored and cheerful. "Ultron is going to evolve."

Annabeth frowns and leans forwards but it's Frank who speaks first. "What does that look like?" he asks. "How do you evolve if you're already made out of an indestructible metal?"

Annabeth's fingers begin sketching over the table's surface in the way Cassie knows they do when she's trying to plan. "You said Ultron was designed to protect people originally right? To like them, to value them?" she inquires to Bruce and Tony who both confirm that she's right. "Well there you go," Annabeth concludes with a shrug. "People can act randomly and change their minds. Artificial Intelligences can't do that. Programming is programming no matter how advanced."

Out of all of the people to stumble on to her meaning Leo is the first one there. "Ah!" He bounces up and down on his feet. "Human!" he says pointing from Stark to Cassie and back again. "He likes human form even though it doesn't work with engineering. He wants humans to go all evolved but he wants to be more human first. Going backwards! That's his evolution!"

Leo has hit the point of excitement where his hair has started to smoke and Annabeth shoots a look at Percy who glances over at Piper who is standing closest to the sink. Piper turns the water on, understanding the meaning and Percy lifts a hand and flicks his fingers. The water immediately redirects, floating up and shooting sideways in to Leo's hair, putting the fire out with a slight hiss. Leo shakes his head like a dog, sending water everywhere. Percy rolls his eyes. "Come on man," he says and throws up a small waterproof bubble up around Leo so the only person getting wet is him.

Jason sighs, flicking a hand at a dishtowel and sending it from where it's hanging over the stove bar straight in to Leo's face, covering his head with a gust of air that ruffles Cassie's hair. "Dry your head off," he instructs. "Don't set the towel on fire."

"Thanks Bro!" comes Leo's voice, muffled by the material of the towel. "'preciate it."

Jason smiles and Calypso reaches up to rub the towel across Leo's curls. "No problem." He leans down and angles his head to look at the tiled floor. "Can someone with dryness abilities clean up the floor? We're guests here."

Cassie stands but Will comes forwards, beating her to it. "Can I try? I've been working on this," Cassie gestures him forwards with an encouraging smile. The fact that there are things she can still teach her little brother, that there are things her little brother can still learn, never fails to make her feel warm and fuzzy inside. Will crouches down and holds out his hand with a look of intense concentration. After a moment a faint golden-orange glow emits from his palm and in a few moments the floor is at least eighty percent dry. "Yes!" Will fists pumps and Cassie claps, giving him a high five when he stands back up.

Fury has been watching the whole thing with narrowed eyes. "I'm gonna need a full ability profile on all of you people," he declares.

"Uh- no," Percy declares with equal weight, crossing his arms. "You might want one, but you aren't getting it." Fury opens his mouth but Percy doesn't let him get the words out. "No."

Fury looks from Percy over to Jason. Leadership is a strange quality in how it announces it's self. Decisions normally filtered through Annabeth or Reyna while Frank was a strategist, but when it came to leadership in conjunction with power the front runners were Percy and Jason. Similarly, Tony and Steve led the Avengers. They had never explained any of this to anyone, but Fury seemed to know regardless.

Jason meets his eyes levelly, crossing his arms in a mirror of Percy. It was in moments like these when Cassie could fully believe that the two of them were related. "We're here because Cassie and Reyna asked us to be," he says clearly. "And because this is a threat to the entire Earth and we live here too. We are not a part of your superhero team and we will not ever be working for your government. And when this is over we're going back to out lives. You aren't going to follow us, and you aren't going to keep files. We aren't going public, and you will not make us."

"That would be messing with our homes and personally, I'd see it as you messing with my friends," Percy says. As he speaks his eyes are the deep churning green of a deep ocean in a storm. "I don't like it when people mess with my friends."

There's a long moment of silence and surprisingly Bucky is the one to break it. "That's fair." It's the first time Cassie has heard him speak since before their mission to Africa and she's received to note that is voice isn't that much rougher than normal.

"I agree," Steve says. Then he looks up and over at Tony. "Stark?"

Tony seems surprised but not displeased to be acknowledged in the situation and stands a little straighter. He nods concisely. "Seems square to me." He glances around. "This being the land of democracy and all, any dissenting opinions?"

No one says a word and for the moment the matter settles.

They go back to talking about what Ultron will do next and how they should counteract it. They end up concluding that Ultron will probably go after Dr. Helen Cho to force her to use the skin cradle to give him a more human body. As a person who assisted a little with the development of that skin cradle, Cassie feels very slightly personally offended by that.

What they don't think about is the fact that she, as a recorded user of healing magic and skin regeneration, might be a target for Ultron too.

Seventeen hours after that planning session, Cassie's kind of wishing that they'd all thought about it a little bit more.

Hindsight is funny like that.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I know this is late in the week for a new post but this is when things were done. It would have been a few days sooner but my first draft of the chapter got deleted by computer fluke so I had to re-write. What did you think of all the demigod interactions? I tried to make them as realistic as I could and to get everyone talking but coordinating dialogue for so many characters turns out to be really complicated. Who'd have thunk right? I also wanted to show Steve trying to process his vision because I always found the content of it fascinating and wanted to take a shot at working it out. Plus I thought the bone breaking hug was pretty realistic for the circumstances involved. There are people without super strength who could break a rib with a hug so someone with it I think definitely could. Anyway, as always I am open to criticism and making edits if you guys have suggestions. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: NOPE!**

The plan to rescue Dr. Cho and thwart Ultron's evil plan is going great. Of course, there are a few problems. With Thor taking a trip to the pool of the Water's of Truth (or whatever magical body of water Asgardians use), Tony going off to the headquarters of the internet (which Cassie hadn't known was an actual physical place that people could visit, and Banner hiding out at the Barton's to avoid releasing the Other Guy any time soon, the team is down a few heavy hitters. Fortunately, the demigod contingent goes along for the mission, staying in the background for as long as possible. They are unknown to Ultron at the moment and all the available strategists think that whatever element of surprise they can gather going forwards will be beneficial.

Leo and Will wait on standby for when they get the cradle so that they'll be ready to deactivate it and undo whatever might have already been done while Nico and Reyna stay back to guard them. Hazel, Frank, and Calypso remain at the Barton's farm to provide defense there. Annabeth elects to stick with Stark on his trip to the nerve center of the internet and Percy refuses to leave her. Piper and Jason come along to intercept the cradle.

When the fighting gets going, Piper places herself somewhere highly visible and talks soothingly in to a microphone, keeping as many of the civilians around clear of the scene as she can. Jason, as the individual least bothered by heights and most capable of flying if he has to stays in the small jet with Barton to oversee things. For her part, Cassie decided to visually track Natasha through the entire altercation.

She does this for a few reasons. Th first of these is that if any of the combatants on her side are going to get hurt, Natasha, as a full on human being is the most likely to die from any injury received. If Cassie can keep her in sight, she can be at her side in seconds if she has to be. The other reason is that if they run out of time to steal the skin cradle outright to take back to Leo, Cassie is the person with the best chance of deactivating it on the spot.

Steve takes on the unenviable position of playing distraction and keeping Ultron occupied. Not the job you want your boyfriend to take. Even if that boyfriend did have a heart pumping super serum through his body and in to each of his cells every minute of every day.

"Well he's definitely unhappy," is Steve's comment. While hanging from the back of a truck doing seventy on the highway. After the door of that truck had been blasted apart from the inside by a laser gun. "I'm going to try to keep him that way."

Cassie surpasses a groan and actually hears Bucky sigh over the mic. Bucky had taken on the job of shooting at Ultron's minions from the ground and was traveling between rooftops to keep pace with events as they unfolded. "You're not a match for him Cap," Clint says.

Not very helpful as in fight commentary goes. The eye roll Steve does is practically audible as he says a dry "Thanks Barton."

"Someone smack Hawkeye for me," Bucky requests over the line. Cassie follows through on the request without a second thought and Barton makes an indignant sound. His protests are cut short by Bucky. "We never tell Steve he isn't a match for someone!" Bucky reprimands. "I learned this in first grade!"

Barton mutters a few colorful swear words but keeps his attention on flying and the fight going on down below them continues. Despite Barton's dire predictions, Steve is holding his own pretty well. At least, he is until Ultron gets his shield and chucks it in to oncoming traffic. That's when Natasha takes her place on a motorcycle n the cargo hold. "We've got a window," Barton informs. "In four, three, two, give him hell."

Natasha drops in to traffic perfectly and with a grace Cassie certainly wouldn't have been able to pull off. "I'm always picking up after you boys," she says lightly as she scoops up Steve's shield, bracing it against the bike's handlebars.

"They're heading under the overpass. I've got no shot," Barton concludes.

"Copy," Bucky says from down on the ground. "Sight lines are becoming obscured. Changing tactical positions."

The sound of Natasha's bike's engine revving in to a higher gear fills the speakers. "Which way?"

Cassie focuses and her vision zooms. "Hard right," she calls. "Now." Natasha doesn't respond verbally, but makes the turn Cassie tells her to.

That's when Piper gets in on the conversation. "Barnes can relocate anywhere along the stretch I've already cleared. No one will be there all day." Then her voice changes and Cassie knows she's talking to more civilians. "Hi! Isn't it a great day to be alive? Why don't we all stay that way and get you inside?" It must be what everyone wants to hear because the crowds around her practically evaporate.

"Pipes, can you clear a path for Agent Romanov?" Jason asks.

Cassie isn't looking at Piper but thinks the other girl probably shrugs as she considers. "Worth a shot. Hey everyone! My friend is going to be coming through here on a motorcycle carrying a Shield. Don't you think it would be just so amazing to be out of her way?" The message spreads through the crowd like wildfire and Cassie can see the foot traffic parting like the waters of the Red Sea.

Barton lets out a low, impressed whistle. "Handy." He glances at Jason. "Your girl's impressive."

The words actually make Jason smile. "Yeah I kinda like her." Then he taps his ear where the com link resides. "Nice work Piper."

"Thanks," Piper gasps, sounding a but strained. "We should try to finish up here quickly though. Charming a crowd this big takes a lot of energy. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it going."

Natasha makes a road runner noise and blasts up several flights of stairs to pull up level with Steve and toss him his shield. This re-arming changes the dynamics of the fight and Steve gets down to hacking and bashing. Cassie manages to relax a notch. The shield is small, but it's bullet and blast resistant and a million times better than Steve fighting with nothing.

"Can you draw off the guards?" Natasha asks, zooming up towards the truck carrying the cradle. She keeps a safe following distance for now because of the robots still in the truck.

Barton hesitates, examining the situation and Jason cuts in. "You should stay nearby in the plane," he says decisively. "Be ready to receive the cradle. I'll handle the robots." He adjusts his golden sword and slams the button that will open the cargo door of the plane.

"You sure you can handle them at once?" Barton asks. "Once they're on you I'm not going to be able to turn around."

"Trust me," Jason says darkly. "I've got it." The door opens, spilling sunshine in around him and bleaching his hair gold. Wind whips in through the space, tugging at Jason's clothes and ruffling his still military short hair. Suddenly he grins. "This is gonna be fun." Without another word he falls casually backwards in to the open sky."

Barton swears and barely avoids jerking the controls. He swears again and adjusts rapidly to keep the plane level. "He's insane!" he mutters. "That kid better not be dead." That's the moment Jason picks to come shooting up through the lower atmosphere, no fewer than four robots on his trail. His hands are spread wide as he bends the air to his will and the winds seem to be wrapped around him like an airy blanketing shield.

Clint's mouth opens like he's going to speak, but at that moment part of the sky goes dark and two crackling branches of electricity fork down from above, frying half of the robots on the spot. Barton shuts his mouth and shakes his head twice like he needs to clear it. Down below them, Steve and Ultron go careening through the air to crash through the side of a passenger train. A shot rings out from below and the third robot trailing Jason falls to the ground, head and body disconnected thanks to Bucky.

The last robot turns and dives back towards Ultron and the cradle. "One of the drones is heading back in," Jason reports, manipulating the air to drop him quickly back towards ground level. "Whatever you're doing, do it now."

"Copy that," Natasha replies. "Cap, can you keep him distracted?"

Once again Cassie can practically hear Steve roll his eyes. "What do you think I've been doing?" he demands. The tone in his voice is somewhere between exasperated and indignant.

Cassie watches carefully as Natasha boards the truck with the cradle in it at high speeds. "I'm not having any luck with the override command on this thing," she reports, voice strained.

At that Cassie stands and moves to the still open door at the back of the plane to find a beam of sunlight to stand in. "Hold on," she tells Nat. "I'm coming to you." She concentrates and feels the familiar tingling warmth as the energy from the sun supercharges her molecules, breaking them apart and reassembling them in the container with Natasha. Or at least, in the container was her goal. Lack of sunlight means she actually materializes on the roof and has to act quickly to drop her weight before being swept away in to traffic.

She gets inside the truck and makes her way to Natasha's side. As it turns out, the action is carried out just in the nick of time. Barely a heartbeat later the entire truck seems to lift off of the ground. The floor tips wildly and both she and Natasha tumble to the floor, scrambling for whatever purchase they can find on the metal interior. Cassie makes a mental note to get them both in for a tetanus booster if they survive.

"Package is airborne," Barton reports over the comms. "I have a clear shot."

"Negative!" Natasha pants urgently. "Negative. Morgenstern and I are still on the truck."

The two of them go in to a brief squabble of detail hatching that Cassie tunes out in favor of concentrating on the cradle and what is inside it. She lays her hand against the control panel and a rush of cold energy races up her arm. It's... an unsettling feeling. There's very nearly a life force there for her magic to lock in to but its somehow mechanical and odd. "This is weird," she mutters.

No one takes any notice and frankly Cassie can't blame them. Everyone is a little busy covering everyone else's backs, doing their jobs, and trying to stay alive to be worried over something being a little out of the ordinary. Of course, out of the ordinary for them might be worth noting. "I can't disable it here. We need Stark and probably Leo."

Nat nods and interrupts Cassie's distracted thoughts by clambering on top of the cradle itself. "Get up here," she says. "And brace yourself. This is going to be a bit of a rough transit."

As someone who once traveled across a third of the country being carried by a metal angel with overly shinny toes, rough transit really isn't something Cassie has any kind of problem with. With that in mind, she does as Natasha says and clambers up beside her, gripping tightly to the sides of the container. "On three?" she asks, noticing the open door of the plane Barton is still flying, tumbling to the plan, and Natasha nods.

Cassie counts it out, shouting to be heard over the roar of the wind. On three, Natasha pushes against the wall of the truck with her legs and Cassie redirects the cacophony of sound filling the space in to a sonic blast that propels them out in to the open air towards the opening of the plane. Miraculously, they actually seem to make it inside the plane. If Cassie had to be she'd say Jason might be bending some air to help them in. The laws of physics can only be disobeyed for so long by so many people before retribution becomes imminent.

Her joy at this miracle is, to put it lightly, extremely short lived. In fact, it's so short lived that it barely registers as joy at all before it's cut off. Seriously, not fair.

They're about half-way inside the plane and to safety when something hard and metallic forms a crushing grip around her left ankle. The pain is so sudden and startling that the shock of it makes Cassie's grip loosen and in the next second she's being jerked out in to open air. She hears the rush of air, Barton calling for Natasha, Steve yelling to get the cradle to Stark, the rumble of approaching thunder, and the sharp report of Bucky's rifle. Her vision registers nothing but a confused impression of gleaming metal, huddled brown buildings on the ground, and the cold, clear, unbroken plane of blue that makes the sky.

Then something hard knocks against her head. Pain blooms along her scalp like a horrifying psychedelic flower. Then everything goes black.

Waking up again is honestly a pretty mixed bag. On the one hand, she's literally in pain from the top of her head to the bottoms of her feet. No kidding, her head is throbbing all along the top of her scalp, her back and shoulders are bruised, her hip and knee feel overly extended, and her ankle is actually throbbing. It's not the worst she's ever felt, that honor goes to shortly after the battle of Manhattan, but it's extremely far from pleasant. On the other hand, she does actually wake up. Which is, to put it lightly, not something she thought she'd ever do again given the circumstances surrounding her loss of consciousness in the first place.

Well, now that she's sure she is alive, the natural next step is to make sure she stays that way. In the interests of that goal, Cassie draws on her training, remains calm, and runs a full body systems check. The range of motion in her toes and foot tells her without magic that her ankle is sprained but not broken. In fact, none of her bones are anything but intact. Bruising and ligament damage is a different story.

Her knee and hip both feel like they might be at least partially dislocated. The pounding, dizzy feeling in her head tells her she's definitely concussed. To what level, she isn't completely sure. She makes a distant mental note to update team concussion protocols if she gets out of this situation without ending up dead. Her recently mended ribcage has more bruises than healthy flesh. The fact that barely more than twenty-four hours ago her boyfriend had been in a guilt spin over accidentally cracking one of those ribs is enough to send her head spinning in her concussed state.

At least, she thinks it was twenty-four hours ago. There don't seem to be any clocks anywhere in the space she's been taken to. More bad news, there are absolutely no windows. No sunlight provided. Cassie represses a groan at the observation. She can access some of her abilities without the sun, but it'll be exhausting and the abilities themselves will be limited in scope. Sun Traveling out of here won't be an escape option.

Strangely for a kidnapping (and she can say that because it's happened to her more than once) she doesn't seem to be being restrained in any way. Her hands and feet are both unbound. There are no chains or robes pinning her against a column, or the cold metal floor, or to any of the industrial work tables.

"Industrial" just about summed up the space. Harsh strip lighting flickered far above her head. Disused cat walks and broken ladders meandered along the ceiling and up the walls. Each floor circled around an empty vertical tunnel in the middle of the space. Cassie was reminded eerily first of a beehive, and second of the underground tunnels in the woods at Camp Half Blood that had housed the Myrmekes, a species of gigantic ants.

It's not a comforting memory association.

The buzzing of machinery doesn't help the impression. A little bit of extra focus reveals random showers of orange and yellow sparks lighting up the darkness, a result of metal grinding and welding together. Her heart sinks a little farther towards her shoes. Whatever Ultron might be planning on doing next, mass production is a definite _uh oh_ of frankly massive proportions.

Speaking of Ultron, the robot himself is standing mere feet away bent over one of the work tables. Suddenly Cassie finds herself wondering if Ultron actually is a _he._ The animatronic voice Ultron used was definitely male, but did Artificial Intelligence possessing robots have a gender? Should she be referring to Ultron as _they?_ If JARVIS were still around, Cassie would have asked. As it is, the question is too confusing for her to try to tackle at the moment. She'll stick with _he_ until someone tells her differently.

She must move or make a noise she doesn't register because Ultron turns and fixes glowing red eyes on her. "Oh," says the robot, metallic voice resonating unnaturally. "You aren't dead. That's good. I was hoping you'd be able to help me."

Gods this moment is tricky. Cassie's had to talk to unstable gods and titans before, and handling beings like that was always a complicated balancing act. "How would I help you?" she asks, doing her utmost to keep her voice level. She also takes on the mission of figuring out sitting up straight and manages it by relying on the wall for extra support. Mentally, she's trying to run through the calculations needed to tell how much energy it would take to mend her injuries here in the dark.

"All in good time," Ultron says, sounding for all the world like a magnanimous showman getting ready to reveal the grand prize. "I think we'll wait until the other one wakes up. I'd hate to have to repeat myself."

Cassie bites her tongue to hold in her commentary but can't help the fact that her eyes roll. Fortunately, Ultron doesn't seem to be looking at her anymore, his attention back on the pile of metal pieces on his work bench. Of course any Artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark has absolutely no patience. Maybe she'll get the chance to ask Leo if AIs really could in merit personalities from their programmers. Gods, she'll have quite the to-do list to get through if she can survive the next twenty-four hours.

Moments later Natasha is growing and shifting beside her as she returns to the waking world. The grimace on her face tells Cassie that the other woman feels just about as bad as she does, maybe worse given that even without sunlight, Cassie's healing time is faster. Natasha notes her presence and then pushes herself upright, analyzing the space and their physical relationship to Ultron with a single searching look.

"Good," Ultron says, noticing that Natasha is awake too now. "You woke up. I had hope you would." The robot seems to look down at his project. "I wanted to show you," he says. "I don't have anyone else."

At that Cassie grits her teeth. If the reason she was concussed and kidnapped turns out to be that Tony Stark managed to create an Artificial Intelligence sentient enough to get lonely then so help her-

"I think a lot about meteors," the AI continues, interrupting her thoughts. "The purity of them. Just, 'boom'. The end. Start again. The world made clean."

A shiver runs the length of Cassie's spine and the pounding in her head increases as the tension communicates itself to her muscles, tensing them and stressing her bruised skin and abused tendons. Gaea had wanted something disturbingly similar. She had grown tired of human life walking over the Earth and decided to wipe them all off of it in her anger and malice. Luke-or perhaps Cronus had wanted to cleanse the gods from creation and start all over again.

The fact that this has happened often enough that it can be considered a reassuring theme in Cassie's life is really, really, depressing.

Ultron still isn't done talking. "I was meant to be new," he's saying with something that sounds almost like longing. "I was meant to be beautiful. The world would have looked to the sky and they would have seen hope, seen mercy. Instead they'll look up in horror. Because of you." There's definite accusation in his voice now. As though she and Natasha have purposefully robbed him of his destiny. Hades, if he were more human, Cassie's willing to bet that she would have no time thinking that that was indeed his perspective on the matter. Only the fact that Ultron is a robot makes it seem to freaking unlikely that he could feel an emotion as complex as betrayal.

"I give you full marks for that," says Ultron, now making his way closer with the sliding creaking sound of moving metal pieces and gear systems. Natasha shrinks further in tot the wall to get away on instinct and Cassie throws all caution to the winds and sends a burst of healing magic down her leg towards her ankle. Without light the effort will drain her, but she's got no hope of every escaping if she can't even stand.

"Like the man said," Ultron muses, still advancing. "'What doesn't kill you-'"

They never hear the end of the proverb because before Ultron can continue, his body is ripped in half from behind. The metal scrap pieces fall to the ground with a series of inharmonious clattering noises. A shower of red sparks burst forwards towards Cassie and Natasha and Cassie barely has the strength to deflect the flames away from their bodies. Getting set on fire is sooooo not what she needs right now.

Where the last robot had been stands a new metal form. It's a different machine but clearly still the same Ultron, an evolution from the last version. This Ultron is taller, his limbs and metal plating smoother and more shiny, hands more dexterous, and eyes brighter. Two low metal horns curl back down along either side of his head, almost suggesting the shape of ears.

The new Ultron spreads his hands. Cassie notices that the metal is still glowing faintly from the heat it absorbed tearing apart the form of the Ultron's predecessor. "Makes me stronger," new Ultron completes. His voice is exactly the same and the realization that the last Ultron must have downloaded himself to this new body makes Cassie shudder once again.

Natasha had had to scramble back to avoid being crushed by robot pieces and as Ultron speaks he continues to back her up, making her retreat against the far wall. He pulls a row of bars across the space, trapping her in a makeshift cell with a decisive slam. Then those glowing mechanical eyes are focused back on Cassie. "Now," the metal voice rasps. "You're going to make me a body."

This time Cassie can't stop her mouth from falling open. "What?" she chokes out incredulously. "I can't do that." Although thinking about it, this is an explanation for her kidnapping that makes a lot more sense than Ultron being lonely.

"Oh I think you can," Ultron says. His face twists almost like he's trying to imitate a patronizing smile but hasn't given himself quite the right range of facial control to pull it off. "You forget I know everything. The entirety of the internet is all right up here," he taps his head with a sound like throwing a rock against an empty trash can. "I've seen your file. I know _exactly_ what you can do."

Cassie takes a breath to steady herself. "If you'd looked at everything carefully then you would know that it's impossible to make something out of nothing," she says, and is pleased to find that her voice barely shakes. 'Especially with a human body. I never actually _make_ anything. The body wants to heal and replace damaged tissue, blood, and bone. I just give it the energy to do that. I can't just grow skin because I feel like it."

Ultron tips his head like he's actually thinking about what she's said. "I see," he says. Strangely, he sounds almost like a child who's just had a teacher explain some basic fact to him in kindergarten. "You need tools," he continues. "The basic building blocks of life."

"Yes," Cassie confirms slowly. Suddenly she's struck by the thought that maybe if she can buy time, she and Natasha will be able to figure out a way to get out of here. "No human starts at base zero. It doesn't exist. You need beginning genetic information for each piece of the body to develop. Like a base code for the rest of the body, or program, to develop off of. And there's no way that I know of to download a computer formatted intelligence in to a human body."

The robot brushes those words away like they couldn't matter less with a single sweep of one metallic hand. "I'd handle that," he pronounces. "So you could make me a body if you had the right," he gestures at the hunks of metal surrounding them. "Materials?"

"Maybe," Cassie says after a moment of consideration. Honestly, given her abilities and magical prowess the number of things she could accomplish with stem cells and enough time might honestly be limitless. She'd just never tried before, both because she hasn't really wanted to and because she has no scientific way of making that kind of work valid. However, she senses a potential opportunity and dives for it like a baseball player sliding in to home. "I can't do anything in the dark," she declares. "Nothing at all."

Ultron huffs and a moment later Cassie's being hauled to her feet by cold robotic hands and dragged towards the wall opposite from Natasha. Her ankle is still mending and almost buckles when she's forced to put weight on it. Apparently Ultron doesn't have the patience to handle her stumbling because she's lifted off the ground and carried to the far wall with her arms pinioned to her sides. She's unceremoniously tossed to the floor and hears the metal bars slam down. Cassie knows she's caged in without having to turn around.

"I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Ultron says, almost derisively. Then he spins and storms from the room. Cassie's no stranger to dramatic exits what with her father being the god of theatre, but this is the only time she's ever seen a robot make one. Ah well. She supposes there's a first time for everything.

There's a long silence and Cassie gets the feeling that both she and Natasha are trying to be sure that Ultron really has left. When Cassie has counted fifty-eight of her own heartbeats worth of silence, Natasha speaks. "Do you think you managed to buy us some time?"

Cassie shrugs, then remembers that it's dark and Natasha probably can't see her. "Maybe. Everything I told him was actually true. I'm actually a bit scared about what he might do with the information. Best case scenario, I've added something to his to do list for before he wipes out life on this planet."

"You think that's the goal?" Natasha asks.

Cassie sighs and mentally reviews what she knows about Ultron. "Yeah," she says. "Yeah I think so. You heard what he said about meteors and starting over again. I have unfortunately heard a similar spiel before, and both times it definitely involved wiping out humanity as we know it."

The shadows shift as Natasha moves off of the wall and towards the bars of her cell. "Can you do that teleporting thing you do? You could get out of here and bring back help."

Cassie considers for a moment and holds one hand out to the weak electric lights with her palm facing upwards. She tries drawing the energy in to herself and her hand momentarily flickers, becoming partially insubstantial, but she doesn't have enough power to blink out of existence and appear somewhere else. She shakes her head. "Not happening from in here. If I could manage to get outside in to natural sunlight I would at least be able to vanish. Figuring out where I reappear would be harder."

Natasha settles on to the floor opposite her. They're separated by two sets of bars but this is as close as they're going to get under the circumstances. "Why is that exactly?" Cassie looks at her questioningly. Out of the entire team, Natasha has always asked the fewest questions about what she can do and how it works. Natasha shrugs. "We're trapped. Humor me."

Figuring it can't hurt and might actually help them get out of here, Cassie takes a moment to organize her explanation and then dives in. "As far as I can tell, vanishing through the sun like I do involves literally overcharging the energy on my body at the molecular level. The added energy pushes all of my atoms apart. To pull everything back together again I have to know where I want it to happen and I need a second energy source to charge my molecules back together again. If there's no sun exactly where I want to go, I end up as close as possible."

"What happens if you go blind?"

"Nothing good," Cassie says darkly. "It's possible I'd just never reform. Or I'd just end up as far away as my energy could take me. When I was first learning to do it I ended up in some weird places by accident. The middle of the Atlantic Ocean was a bad one. Nico does something similar. He ended up in China twice before he got the hang of it." A thought occurs to her and she tips her head. "Sometimes I don't need a place. That time I showed up in Sam's kitchen, I didn't know where I was headed. I just aimed for wherever Steve happened to be. If I had sunlight I could probably do that again now. As long as he's within about two hundred miles."

Cassie stands up and paces around her cell. She examines the bars carefully and searches for a locking mechanism of any kind. Being a descendent of Mercury, if there's a lock she might be able to pick it and get them out of here. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lock to be picked. "Is there a lock anywhere on the bars of your cell?" she calls over to Natasha.

Natasha stands up and examines her space. "No," she calls back after a moment. "Nothing. Ultron seems to have just slammed the bars down." She grips the metal experimentally and gives it a tug, but it doesn't budge. "Yeah," Natasha pants. "That's not going anywhere."

"Okay," Cassie says categorizing what information they have. "If we're not getting out, then someone else is going to have to get in. Normally I'm not a fan of sitting around waiting to be rescued, but I'm not seeing another option right now."

To her surprise, Natasha actually seems to be smiling. "Ultron wasn't too careful with this nice little prison. He left me in here with a signaling device. If it's still in working order, I might be able to get a message out to Clint. He can pass it along to the rest of the team, and we'll go from there."

Cassie nods. "Sounds good."

Natasha gets up and goes to work on whatever machine she's been left with. With nothing else to do, Cassie reclines against the wall of the building and carefully bends and extends her various limbs. Her body is healing slower than normal, but it is still healing. If she wants everything to align properly, then periodic movement in as many directions as she can manage is crucial.

"Got it working," Natasha announces. "I'll send the signal continuously for as long as I can. Hopefully Ultron will be too busy to notice until some help can get here."

Her knee pops slightly as it realigns and Cassie winces and then smiles through the pain. "You know, in a way I kind of feel bad for him." Natasha aims a look at her that's clearly a question about what she means and Cassie moves to explain. "Percy Jackson has literally gone to hell and back for the people he cares about, Clint Barton is a very dangerous long range assassin with excellent focus, and the last time anyone tried to kidnap someone Steve cared about he airdropped directly in to an active war zone. Now, all three of those people are incredibly pissed off, and they've all got friends."

This time, Natasha smiles too. It's not a happy smile. It's grimly satisfied and coldly vindictive. "Any bets on who shows first?"

They don't make any bets which turns out to be a good thing. Percy isn't the first one of their friends to show up. Neither is Barton or Steve. In fact, the very first person to show up, is none other than Nico DiAngelo.

He evolves out of a puddle of darkness, his over large black coat swirling as it regains form and substance. Nico looks pale, but clearly the jump hasn't drained him too badly. Either he's been storing up on energy for at least a week, or their other friends aren't so far away. Cassie likes the second option better.

Nico blinks around at the space and then his eyes find Cassie. "Oh," he says, like her presence here is the surprise, not his. "Hi. Your brother is freaking out worse than your boyfriend. You owe me therapy for dealing with both of them at once."

He unsheathes his black sword, the blade glowing with a purple, thrumming light and makes his way forwards. Cassie rolls her eyes. "Nice to see you too Nico. Thanks for coming."

Nico shrugs and raises his sword. "You're my boyfriend's big sister. I wasn't about to let Will use you. Now, stand back."

Cassie doesn't need telling twice, standing as far back against the wall as she can get. Nico sliced through the bars near the bottom, cutting a healthy gap. The stygian iron glow seemed to pulsate as the metal of the underworld absorbed energy. It might have just been Cassie's imagination, but she thought she could almost see the shadows in the room coalescing around Nico, wrapping him in loving wisps of darkness.

Getting through the gap means ducking down and shimmying a little which Cassie does. As soon as she's free she leans up and wraps Nico in a tight hug, his oblique reference to Bianca's death still ringing in her ears. She has to stand on her toes to hug him. That didn't used to be true.

Nico isn't normally mush of a hugger but he accepts the gesture stiffly and gives her back an awkward pat. Then he turns and cuts a new gap in the bars of Natasha's cage, offering a hand to help pull her out. Cassie wonders if she should invest in keeping a sword around. Normally she prefers smaller knives and her arrows, but nothing she carries around would be able to cut through the bars like Nico's sword had.

"Do we have a ride out of here?" Natasha asks, all business now that she's out of the cell.

Nico quirks an ironic eyebrow, a skill he's been perfecting for years. "You mean past the homicidal robot drones downstairs? Yeah, I've got something." Then he fishes a leather cord out from around his neck and brings the object hanging on it up to the meager light. On closer inspection, Cassie sees that the object is a gleaming silver-white dog whistle, the kind percy had once used to summon Mrs. O'leary in to the Labyrinth. The whistle is made from Stygian Ice and Cassie shudders at the realization that Nico had been wearing it against his skin.

Nico raises the whistle to his mouth and blows in to it. There's no sound, but Cassie knows better than to think that that means it hasn't work. Cassie gestures for Natasha to stand back and the woman does so without question or further prompting. The shadows in the center of the room begin to thicken and swirl once again and between one blink and the next, they're joined in the room by the one and only friendly Hell Hound in existence.

"Hey there girl," Cassie greats happily, stepping forwards to scratch along the highest bit of fur she can reach which is only about knee level. Mrs. O'Leary barks happily with a sound like sheet metal being banged with a hammer and wags her tail, slamming it against both walls. "Yeah," Cassie laughs. "Good to see you too." Then she turns and faces Natasha. "Natasha, meet Mrs. O'Leary."

Natasha is staring at the Hell Hound warily and cuts a quick glance from her to Nico, and then back to Mrs. O'Leary. "Is this your dog?" she asks, in an impressively calm voice.

"Technically she's Percy's," Nico says, clambering up Mrs. O'Leary's black furry side. "She used to belong to Daedalus, but then he died and Percy inherited her. I can call her because my dad rules the underworld. Come on," he slides forwards and grabs the dog collar around the Hell Hound's neck. "Clime up. We need to get out of here."

A clattering sound from the ground floor reinforces Nico's words and Cassie leaps up to grip Mrs. O'Leary's shoulder joint. She hauls herself up and sits behind Nico, holding on to the back of his jacket. Mrs. O'Leary obligingly lies down flat on the ground so Natasha can climb on board more easily. "I'm escaping from killer robots on a gigantic mastiff," Natasha mutters. "I don't get paid enough."

"Stark's got plenty of money," Nico comments over his shoulder. "I'm sure he'd up your salary. Now hold on, _tightly._ "

Cassie only needs to be told once. She's Shadow Traveled a few times before and it's definitely not her favorite way to get around. As Nico leans forwards to talk to Mrs. O'Leary, Cassie wraps her arms around his thin chest and holds on so tightly she could have crushed the bones of a regular mortal. No matter how healthy and happy Nico gets, the guy seems to be incapable of ever putting on weight.

She can feel Natasha crushing in against her from behind and moments later they're gone. They've dissolved in to blackness and shadows. The wind whistles and screams around them with the sounds of a million terrified souls. Cassie buries her face in the back of Nico's jacket and closes her eyes, focusing all of her energy on trying to breath as her heart races in her chest. The only solid things are Mrs. O'Leary's fur beneath her and Nico and Natasha to her front and back.

Then it's over, and they're reforming on wonderfully solid ground.

Well...

Kind of solid ground.

Unfortunately, part of the city seems to be flying.

Cassie tips herself sideways and slides down to the ground, breathing deeply as wonderful, glorious sunlight filters down through the tree canopy and warms her face and hands. The shivery coldness that had permeated her skin through the trip is chased away in small streaks. It's like standing in a hot shower after a day spent outside in January. Off to her left, she can hear Natasha being sick. Even the most iron mortal stomach was no match for first-time Shadow Traveling.

Nico is still sitting on Mrs. O'Leary and catches her eye from up above. "Head that way," he says, gesturing in to the woods. "We're in Sokovia. The main portion of the city is about a quarter mile East. We've evacuated most of the civilians. Piper was helpful. Your boyfriend made a very rousing heartfelt speech about limiting casualties as much as possible. I think Jason might have a new personal idol."

"Steve does that to people," Cassie says with a nod. She revolves where she's standing, fixing the points Nico's told her about in her mental compass. "Got it," she makes a small gesture of blessing towards Nico. "Go be a hero."

He salutes, and then he's gone, vanishing with Mrs. O'Leary.

Natasha straightens up, looking towards where Nico just disappeared. "You have strange friends," she tells Cassie.

"Yeah," Cassie says. "But strange in a good way." There's a distant crashing noise from through the trees in the direction Nico had indicated. "Let's go. The rest of our strange friends are fighting an army of killer robots. We should probably go help them."

Really they should probably take a minute to regroup before either of them goes charging in to battle, but they don't really have much choice. The sounds of the battle get louder and louder as they approach and Cassie can smell ozone. Clearly Jason has been busy.

They hit the main city right in time to see a silvery-blue blur shoot past knocking robots left and right. Cassie frowns and taps at the com link Ultron never bothered to take from her ear. After a little fiddling it's operational again and Cassie is just in time to hear Steve say. "Stark, you worry about brining the city down safely. The rest of us have one job; tare these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off."

"You're saying that like a joke," Jason's voice mutters. "But at least three of us have actually done that."

Leo makes a contemplative sound. "I'm not actually sure I was all the way dead. I kind of have this like, hazy memory of post Gaea fiery explosion awareness. Hazel definitely, that was like seventy years of dead. You Jay-Man, you were dead. Was I?"

"Yes," Nico says matter of factly answering what might well have been a rhetorical question. You were dead. The memories only come back to you because you took the cure quickly. Hazel remembers being dead because of our father. Jason was dead and his spirit literally walked it off in the underworld for a week and then calmly asked Thanatos if he could come back. The paperwork hadn't been processed yet, and Thanatos was so surprised that he agreed."

"I think I freaked some people out on that one," Jason says, sounding almost apologetic. "Octavian actually wet himself."

"A memory I personally will cherish forever," Reyna adds.

Percy sighs. "A memory I wish I myself had to reflect on.

At that moment a male accented voice breaks through the line, interrupting the banter before Steve can give anyone a stern talking to in Captain America voice. "Keep up old man!" Barton's grumbling tells Cassie the comment had come from Pietro Maximoff and been addressed to him. Apparently, the twins have switched sides since the last time she saw them.

Cassie shrugs off the loyalty shift and twists the charm on her necklace to activate her bow. Right now a long range warrior will be more useful than a healer. She'll be that again later after the battle is over. without further a due, the shoots off a quick volley in to the vulnerable metal joints of the robots closest. Natasha goes to work using high-tech electric weapons and together they manage to cut a line towards the center of the battle.

"What'd I miss?" Cassie asks over the link. "Is everyone alive?"

"Cassie!" Percy's voice says cheerfully in to her ear. "Happy you're back. You have awesome friends by the way."

Before Cassie can formulate a response to this Annabeth's voice cuts in. "Focus Seaweed Brain! We can all sit around and trade compliments later."

"But sarcasm!" Leo protests. "Besides my man Percy and I have witty enough dialogue to count it as a weapon."

"I don't think the robot army agrees with you," Reyna says conversationally. The clash of metal in the background makes it clear she's fighting her way through a crowd. "Is anyone close enough to come help me out?"

There's a loud elephant trumpeting sound and the crashing of gigantic feet. "Hold your position," Hazel's voice says. "Frank and I are on the way to you right now."

Cassie focuses on the fight. If the demigods can banter than they must be doing just fine. Moments later, Steve comes hurtling out of nowhere and throws his shield over to Natasha to use as a sort of flying discus of destruction and Natasha calls out a thank you. Steve pummels apart a few robots and hurls their broken pieces off the edge of the floating city before turning to her.

"Hi honey," Cassie greats without looking away from the robots she's aiming at. "I'd kiss you but I'd really like it if neither of us died."

Out of the corner of her eye she sees Steve swallow and nod before punching a hole straight through the chest of another robot. "That's fair," he says. "But I'm still going to say I love you, and that the last eighteen hours haven't been good."

"Likewise," Cassie replies, firing off another volley. "Also, just out of curiosity, are the twins really on our side now? Or, should I shoot them the next time one comes within range."

One of her arrows hits a robot and explodes in a fountain of root beer. The moisture seems to creep through the circuitry and the bot falls to the ground in a twitching, sparking heap as Steve confirms that Wanda and Pietro are indeed playing for Team Good Guy. "Percy?" Cassie asks over the ear piece. "You should know that these things don't like getting wet."

Percy makes a contemplative noise. "You don't say. So hypothetically if I were to blow a water pipe in to their faces, they might not like it much?" Cassie can actually feel the ground beneath her shudder as Percy uses his powers to access the buried water lines which seemed to have kept their integrity despite the city's new status as a floating island. There's a swooshing _flume!_ of sound several hundred yards a way and Cassie focuses her vision to see an enormous spout of pressurized water blasting out of the ground and in to the robots. They fall to the ground short circuiting. "Hmmm," Percy mumbles. "What a shame."

Steve takes off at a run through the rubble and Cassie follows after, moving a little more slowly so she can still aim. "What've you got Stark?" he asks.

"Well not much," Tony answers, voice a bit tiny from being filtered through his helmet. "Maybe a way to blow up the city."

"That I could help with," Leo pipes in helpfully. "It wouldn't be that hard if we just-"

He's interrupted by Piper hissing at him to shut up and listen, Charmspeak still heavy in her voice.

"If we blow the city then it wouldn't work as a meteor," Annabeth deduces out loud. "That might work. It's limited the casualties for the people down below anyway. Of course, we'd have to get clear first."

"Between me, Nico, Cassie, Frank, Percy on Blackjack, Hazel on Orion, Thor, and Stark that might be doable," Jason says analytically. A loud crackling interrupts the line and Cassie supposes h must have just electrocuted some unfortunate robots. "If that's the plan we want to go with."

Steve helps a few more civilians out of the main line of fire, blinking in the clouds of dust produced by all the rubble. "I asked for a solution not an escape plan," he says sharply.

Annabeth comes back online then. "If I'm doing my math right then the impact radius is getting bigger every second. This might not be the best plan, but it's the only one we've got."

"Whatever we decide, we're not going to have long to pull it off," Jason adds. "Pretty soon the air is going to start getting thin, and not everyone up here can survive that."

"Cap," Natasha says. "These people are going nowhere." Cassie turns and sees that the woman is looking out at the sky over the edge of the city. "There'd be worse ways to go," she comments. "Where else would I get a view like this?"

"Uh," Percy says, clearly gearing up for a smart ass comment. "Like, any airplane ever? The Grand Canyon?"

Cassie can almost hear Piper's wince. "Can we all agree to never talk about the Grand Canyon? Like, ever?"

"I met you at the Grand Canyon!" Jason protests. "What's wrong with it?"

"Technically," Leo cuts in. "We broke the skywalk at the Grand Canyon, then got thrown in by an evil coffee drink and almost died. I'm with Piper on this one."

Reyna sighs and it's a rush of static over the speaker. "How many times do we have to explain that Venti are wind spirits and not just a drink size at Starbucks?"

Suddenly a new voice breaks in on the conversation. "I'm glad you all can be so chatty about the view," says Nick Fury. "Keep looking. It's about to get better." He's not wrong. The hellicarier that bursts through the cloud layer to hover directly next to them is one of the single most beautiful things Cassie has ever seen. "She's nice right?" Fury says. "I pulled her out of the mothballs with some old friends. She's dusty but she'll do."

Cassie spares half a second to wonder which friends Fury has that were quietly hanging on to an aircraft with more equipment and technology in and on it than the average military base. The other half of the second is spent wondering how long it will take Leo to take apart and rebuild the engine immediately after boarding. The thought isn't that comforting.

"Fury you son of a bitch," Steve says with heartfelt appreciation.

"Ooh," Fury says with not a little touch of humor. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

The sound of a watery explosion comes again and Cassie turns to see Percy hacking and slashing through the robots with Riptide, Piper behind him. "I have some good swearing puns," he says helpfully. He extends his hand a section of water drainage pipe rockets up from under the earth, impaling three robots with a muddy spray.

Piper reaches them and then keeps going, heading for the evacuation sight where floating life boat style please seem to have anchored themselves. "I'm going to organize the evacuation," she reports. "I have the best chance at keeping everyone calm."

Jason falls out of the skye beside them, landing neatly and giving Piper a quick and earnest kiss on the cheek. "I'll watch your back."

Piper shakes her head. "Work with Percy," she tells him. "Focus on that. Don't worry about me," she sends him a quick grin. "I'm a dangerous girl."

Jason smiles back at her, like they're sharing an old and private joke. "That I can believe." He flexes his palms towards the ground and is back in the air, forty feet above them in seconds.

Pietro Maximoff zooms to a stop beside them and grins at the carrier. "This is SHIELD?" he asks Steve. Smiling, his face becomes boyish and much more pleasant.

Steve glances at him and then nods. "This is what SHIELD is supposed to be."

Maxim off turns back to the carrier and then nods decisively. "This is not so bad."

He looks ready to zip away again but Cassie holds out a hand to stop him. "Wait," she says, then digs in to one of her convenient armor pockets and extracts one of the specialty protein bars she whipped up for Steve and Bucky and shoves it at him. "Eat this. Your calorie and blood sugar levels must be tanking. You'll be faster if you give your body something to process."

Pietro looks doubtful for a second, but must realize the truth to her words because he takes the bar from her, opens the package, and downs the bar in three bites. "This tastes strange," he says around a partially full mouth. "Almost of mint, but in a funny way."

"Told you so," Bucky mutters over the com link.

It's the first time Cassie's heard him speak the whole battle and is momentarily relieved by the proof that he is actually present and watching their backs. Then that relief turns in to annoyance as she processes what he's actually said. "Shut it Barnes," she tells him. "Go back to your sniping. See if I give you food next time you're hungry."

If she could see Bucky she thinks he might have shrugged. "You might not feed me," he says neutrally. "But you will feed Steve. He'll share." Cassie glances across at Steve who shrugs, not looking the slightest bit apologetic.

"I got it!" Annabeth exclaims excitedly. "If we could make a heat seal-"

Stark seems to realize what she's saying first. "I could do it," he says. "I could supercharge the spire from below. "Rhodey, get the rest of the civilians on board that carrier." Rhodes offers an affirmative. Cassie hadn't even realized the man was there, but she's glad he is. The more help they can get, the better. "Avengers," Stark continues. "Time to work for a living. Everyone else, consider this a really intense extra curricular."

"Ah man," Leo's voice says. "If I got a dollar for every time I helped save the world..."

Will's voice interrupts him. "Wouldn't you have like, four dollars?" he asks as he fights his way towards the carrier boats to help with any wounded. Cassie's brother is an incredibly healer and a good fighter when he has to be, but it's not his highest skill set in a battle.

"Nah bro," Leo says, apparently still brimming with enthusiasm. "I'd have duct tape! Do you have any idea how _much_ you can do with the amount of duct tape you can get for four dollars?"

They've been converging on the center of the city where Ultron has placed his device this whole time and Cassie and Steve arrive just in time to see Barton and Wand Maximoff join the party from the other direction. Pietro zooms in to focus to check on his sister and Natasha joins them all with a clearly hijacked truck and asks what the drill is. "This is the drill," Stark answers. 'If Ultron gets a hand on this core," he gestures at the device behind him. "We lose."

Percy jogs causally in to view with Frank in elephant form with Annabeth on his back and Hazel riding Arion on his heels. Jason lands a moment later, clearly having stopped to pick up Leo and deposits the other boy on the ground before drawing his spear. Reyna and Bucky arrive moments later, Reyna cloaked in Athena's gifted aegis and Bucky holding a very large gun. Tony and Thor are already there along with a red-skinned flying man with a cape and a gold gem in the middle of his forehead.

"Umm.." Cassie says. "Steve? Who is that exactly?"

Steve sees where she's indicating. "It's kind of a long story," he says. "His nam is vision. Stark made him. He's on our side. He can pick up Thor's hammer. That's really all I've got."

Well.

That certainly cleared everything up.

A swarm of robots attacks them, but all together they manage to beat them back without too much difficulty. "Is that the best you can do?!" Thor bellows at Ultron.

Immediately, every single demigod in the vicinity groans. They all learned very early on in life that you should literally never asks that question. It was just asking for everything to go wrong.

Sure enough, a huge mob of mechanical nasties swarm towards them out of the rubble that used to be the city. Hundreds of them climbing over each other to reach them. Steve heaves a great sigh from directly behind Cassie. "You had to ask," he says in a put upon sort of way.

Directly to her right, Cassie hears Bucky let out an inelegant snort. "Steve Rogers is lecturing somebody else about picking a fight with somebody bigger than they are," he mutters mockingly. "I must have missed the part of this day when the world started spinning backwards."

"Was he really that bad?" Annabeth asks interestedly. "My dad's like a major history buff."

"Worse," Bucky assures her. " I used to check random alleyways around where I knew he was planning to be on the off chance he was in one getting pummeled. He was like two hundred and fifty pounds of 'get back over here and say that to my face' in a one hundred and ten pound body. Thank god Erskine's experiment got him caught up."

Steve probably would have intervened to tell his friend to shut up but Ultron cuts in on the conversation before he gets the chance. "This is the best I can do," he rumbles. He spreads his hands magnificently. "All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well like the old man said," Stark says, glancing around at the rest of them from inside his helmet as the robots swarm forwards. "Together."

Then everything becomes chaos. This is melee fighting at it's most basic. Weapons smash and slice, water pipes explode, the Hulk and Frank roar through, Tempest the storm spirit crackles along with Thor's lightning as Jason charges forwards. Arion whinnies, and the air dances with flames as Leo gets to work. Pietro is a silver streak through the space while his sister uses swirls of red energy to rip robots apart. Bucky's metal arm flashes in the sun along with blasts of golden light and Stark's repulsers. Cassie uses every trick she has from arrows to concussive sound waves, blasting through enemies like they're dominos.

Thor, Stark, and Vision blast Ultron all together and Hulk punches him out of the way, sending him flying. A group of robots tries to flee and Stark calls for Rhodey. Cassie expects Jason to go with them but instead he turns to Percy. "Ready?" he asks, extending one hand.

Percy nods and takes it. "Lock it up."

In seconds, the pressure all around them drops. The air crackles and the smell of ozone becomes nearly over powering. The wind whips in to a maelstrom and Cassie feels all the hair on her arms stand upright. The temperature dips by what must be ten degrees, and suddenly their part of the fight is happening in a fun fledged hurricane, complete with rain and lightning strikes. Within seconds theres a radius of several thousand yards and a complete sky around them that's completely robot-free. Of course, their entire side is now soaking wet, but Cassie personally considers that a small price to pay.

Steve shakes the damp hair out of his face and assesses the situation. "We don't have a lot of time," he says. "Even I can tell the air is getting thinner. Everybody get to a boat. I'll sweep for stragglers and be right behind you."

"What about the core?" Clint asks.

"I will protect it," Wanda Maximoff volunteers, in the same accented English as her brother. She makes eye contact with Barton. "It's my job." Barton nods and Cassie quietly wonders if he's pulled off some kind of weird pseudo adoption in the last half an hour.

Without another word, Jason gestures for Leo to grab on and takes off, going straight up in to the sky. Nico whistles for Mrs. O'Leary and climbs on to her, vanishing in a pool of shadow. Percy calls for Blackjack and mounts, pulling Annabeth up behind him and they take to the sky as well. Frank morphs from an elephant in to a fire breathing dragon complete with wings and follows. Natasha and Barton stare after this unbelievable sight for a moment, clearly trying to comprehend it before hijacking a car and getting on their way. Cassie can hear them chatting about home renovation as they go.

That leaves Steve and Cassie with Bucky, Reyna, and Wanda huddled around the cube. Steve looks at Bucky questioningly and Bucky shrugs. "This ain't the end of the line yet Pal."

Reyna just shrugs when Steve turns his gaze to her. "He's a time investment now," she says, inclining her head towards Bucky. "Leaving him to die would just be wasteful."

Then it's Cassie's turn and she meets Steve's blue eyes levelly. "You don't leave, I don't leave," she says firmly. Steve opens his mouth to protest and Cassie cuts him off with a quick, hard, kiss to his mouth. She draws back before it can get any deeper and knocks a new arrow. "You, boyfriend mine, are noble to a nearly suicidal level. If you want me off this hunk off rock, then you're going to have to ditch that tendency and come right along with me."

Steve doesn't respond to that but Cassie catches Bucky's eye and he gives her a small nod so she knows she's hit the nail on the head. If Steve only had his own life to think about, there's no saying if he'd try getting out of here at all. With other people he cares about refusing to leave until he does, Cassie and Bucky have effectively backed him in to a self-preservative corner.

They're about seven city blocks from the boats when the rattle of machine gun fire sounds and Barton calls urgently through the coms. "Cassie," he says, sounding panicked. "Get here. Get here now."

"You didn't see that coming," says the choked off voice of Pietro Maximoff.

Cassie looks over at Steve in alarm and he nods once. "Go!"

Cassie vanishes in to a puddle of light, focusing on Clint Barton with everything in her being and a moment later her body has reformed right next to the man in question. She can see immediately what is wrong. Pietro is sprawled on the ground, the left side of his body riddled with bloody holes, a breath rattling through his lungs that for all Cassie knows could be his last.

Without pausing to think Cassie dives forwards and presses both hands against his chest. Most of the bullets have gone clean through his body and Cassie throws every ounce of her remaining magical energy in to ejecting the remaining bullets and sealing the flesh behind them. She feels chipped bones refuse. Both lungs reinflate in a desperate push and the fluid that isn't supposed to be there drains away. Blood begins to replace itself and Cassie can actually feel Pietro's heart shudder below her palms as his body tried to react to her magic. With a shock Cassie realizes that Pietro's body heals so quickly that his body is actually prepared to race her magic to fix the damage. If she can get his heart to beat for just thirty more seconds...

"Jason!" she shouts, even as a horrible scream from Wanda rips through the air and red energy fills the sky. Like a miracle, Jason lands beside her, hands outstretched. "Defib now!"

Thank all the gods Jason is quick on the uptake. "Clear!" he calls. A fork of lighting crackles down from the sky, balances between his palms and then shoots straight in to Pietro's heart just as Cassie leaps back and withdraws her hands.

Pietro's body arches and Cassie has her palm back over his heart before he's back on the ground. She sends one last jolt of magic in to his heart and tracks it as her power spirals out through his newly repaired heart, repairing smashed veins and shredded arteries as blood flows through them. Pietro opens his eyes with a gasp and barely manages to spit out a mouthful of blood. "Your boyfriend said to walk it off," he gasps weekly. "He will have to settle, for breathing."

Cassie almost cries and almost laughs with relief and sits back, utterly exhausted. She turns to Jason. "Get him to the boat and make sure he gets to medical. Send Will to him." Jason nods and grips Pietro under the shoulders, taking off once more. "No one else get shot," Cassie warns tiredly through the earpiece. "Or if you do, make sure you hold really still until I can get there. I'm completely out of magic. It's staples, stitches, and glue from here on out."

"Don't worry about that," Steve tells her, sounding worried. "You and Barton just get to the ship." They've hit the crossword between concerned team leader Captain America and worried boyfriend Steve. Arguing and resistance is futile.

"Copy," Cassie says, struggling up to her feet. Barton is carrying a little boy who is clutching tightly to his chest but he still offers one arm to help Cassie along. Given that Barton is a pair of walking biceps, Cassie lets him take a bit of her weight without feeling bad about it. Pietro seems to have gotten them within ten feet of the nearest life boat and the three of them stumble aboard. Barton hands the little boy off to a woman who must be his mother and helps Cassie over to an empty seat. He vanishes and returns a few minutes later with a juice box which Cassie drains gratefully.

The boat detaches and begins to fly back towards the carrier just as Steve comes charging out of the rubble and launches himself up and in to the raft. He looks around in a panic and his eyes fall on Cassie just as the city behind them explodes, falling in jagged chunks of rock in to the water below. Steve crosses over and hauls Cassie in to his arms, holding as tightly as he seems to dare. Over his shoulder, Cassie sees vision fly out of the rubble, holding Wanda tightly around the waist. A little focus shows Stark and Thor flying along behind them, all four making for the boat.

A small smile graces Cassie's face and she turns her head, burrowing in to the solid warmth of Steve's shoulder.

Incredible as it seems, everyone's alive.

 **A/N: Damn that one was long! So yes, I decided to save Pietro. Partly because I could see a good way for the story to continue, particularly the version of Civil War I might do with him alive, partly because I think part of the point of having Cassie around is injury recovery, and partly because I recently watched "Nowhere Boy" on Netflix and fell a bit in love with Aaron Taylor Johnson. I just think the character had more to offer the MCU than he got a chance to do and wanted to give writing him a shot. I can kill him off later if you guys don't like him? Anyway, let me know what you thought! I probably won't post next weekend because I have to move out of my apartment and I'll be really freaking busy. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: Talk to Rick Riordan, Joss Whedon, and Stan Lee if you want to speak with the people who make money from these guys. I'm just doing the equivalent of renting for free, making no money, and doing it without permission or the knowledge of their rightful owners. Nobody sue me.**

The part that sucks most about any battle isn't actually the fighting. It's not the smoke and the rubble and the enemies coming at you from every direction. It's not the physical pain of scraped knuckles, broken bones, strained muscles, blooming bruises, and popped joints.

No.

What sucks the most about any battle is the aftermath. Figuring out how to fix something and put it all back together is infinitely harder than blowing something apart or knocking it down to the ground. Cuts, breaks, and bruises can be inflicted more quickly than they can ever hope to heal, and psychological damage lasts infinitely longer than any of the physical results of a fight ever do.

In the aftermath you have to bury the dead. You have to treat the injured and try to help people find their loved ones. You have to watch them cry when the loved ones they're trying to find and the bodies that have to be buried are one in the same.

Yeah. In Cassie's opinion the aftermath will forever and always be worse.

This time though, Cassie's not one of the people who's lost something. All of the people she loves are alive and safe and as whole as they were when this whole mess started. The city she calls home didn't just float in to the sky and get pulverized to avoid a world ending dinosaur-asteroid style crisis. She has a home that she knows she can go back to at the end of the day.

Week? Hellish forty-eight hours?

Whatever, the Tower is still standing and untouched by this particular calamity.

So instead of crying or breaking down, Cassie cleans the blood off of her hands, pulls on her metaphorical white lab coat, organizes her medical supplies so that the mortal stuff is near the top, and goes to help however she can. And she's not alone. All of the Avengers and all of the demigods scatter across the carrier full of newly minted refugees to help.

Cassie and Will do their best to help the SHIELD medical teams in treating the injured. Piper uses the horn of plenty to provide a seemingly endless supply of fresh food and Percy uses his powers to magically filter every source of water on the carrier to make is potable. Leo and Tony vanish to the engine rooms to repair damages and Hazel and Nico grimly tap in to their extra senses to find the dead. Annabeth, Reyna, Jason, Frank, Steve, and Maria Hill form the six sided team of leadership to determine where all of the displaced citizens of Sokovia are going to go. Thor, Bucky, Barton, Natasha, and Vision spend their time acting as foreign language translators and the lifters of heavy objects. Wanda Maximoff doesn't leave her brother's side as he recovers.

However, there always comes a point where the people helping have no other choice but to stop. In this case, that moment comes about two hours after they've all gotten started. Really, given that they've been in battle for the last six hours and generally haven't slept for about two days, it's amazing that they last as long as they do.

From a personal view point, Cassie decides to call it quits when she stands up and almost tumbles sideways in to the wall. Her vision is swimming and black spots are dancing and expanding along the edges of her eyesight. Basically, her calorie count is probably at something like negative six thousand, she's sleep deprived, and if her clothes are any indication then at some point she sustained some fairly major blood loss without noticing.

Well, she's sure as shit noticing now.

Eventually she manages to drag herself over to a SHIELD worker who tells her that a lot of the team has been slowly making their way towards a private room turned in to a limited access mess hall. After getting directions, Cassie makes her way to it on shuffling feet that don't seem to want to lift very far off of the ground and gives the metal door two solid thumps. No one answers and Cassie spends a fleeting moment wondering if she needs some sort of secret knock no one told her about to get in.

Then the door swings inwards and Cassie nearly falls through it in to empty space. In fact, she probably would have face planted if Frank didn't manage to catch her and set her on her feet again. He helps her over the high threshold and in to the room and is too sweet of a person to bring up the fact that she's covered in grime and blood that doesn't quite all belong to her.

A space at the table clears for her between Reyna and Will and Cassie sinks in to it with a grateful sigh. Percy takes one look at her and shoves a pizza box her direction. Cassie gives him a nod of thanks in response and digs in. No one speaks and it's mutually understood that everyone in the room is in a state of zoned out exhaustion. Eating and breathing is about all anybody has the energy for.

She's eaten two slices of pizza and drunk about a liter of water by the time the door opens again and this time it's Steve and Natasha who make their way inside, Fury and Hill just behind them. Jason, being who he is, asks for a review of the situation and Cassie honest to the gods tries to listen but just can't make her brain obey her. Instead she focuses on Steve and the problem off not having enough chairs.

Steve solves that problem by the simple expedient of gesturing for her to stand up, taking her seat, and then tugging her down in to his lap. It's not the most dignified of positions to be in, but at the moment literally no one in the room cares. Besides, sitting across him Cassie can actually feel the steady pounding of his heart pumping blood through his chest and the steady expansion of the breath in his lungs, both natural patterns working in perfect life supporting rhythm.

That might not sound romantic to anyone else, but for a girl with a medical degree in their possession and a rhythm oriented god in their genetic pool, this was about as reassuring as things could possibly be. It also helps that her medical senses have expanded to analyze Steve on physical contact and everything she can find is telling her that he's more or less healthy. Sure his heart rate is elevated and his blood sugar is through the floor, bruises are covering most of his body and at some point he lost blood, but otherwise he's just as physically whole as he was before.

With all of that new information running through her head, Cassie leans forward and grabs the remainder of the pizza box to pass over her shoulder to Steve. "Have a couple thousand calories." He loops an arm around her waist and squeezes lightly in thanks before going to work on the food.

When he's done he puts the pizza box back on the table and shifts back in the chair, adjusting so Cassie can be more comfortable. "Are you alright?" he murmurs quietly.

Cassie almost nods without thinking twice but stops when she catches Steve's look of concern out of the corner of her eye. He's genuinely asking and genuinely concerned and right now he won't settle for a flip answer. She flips her hands palm up and let's Cassie see the faint glow of magic emanating from her skin. The magic takes a minute to scan her body but as it goes Cassie feels a few more bruises reduce in swelling and a few more cuts stitch themselves closed.

"Yes," she assures him. "A few fractures and cuts. Lots of blood loss to work out," she gestures at the front of her armor which is still spattered with the blood that should be flowing through her veins instead. "But nothing that can't be fixed with a little bit of time." Just then a yawn almost makes her jaw crack in half. "Maybe some sleep," she manages to add.

"Sleep," Steve tells her. Cassie feels a slight pressure against one of her curls and sees with a glance that Steve's just plucked a chunk of what probably used to be a building or a sidewalk out of her hair. "There's nothing anyone can do against an adrenaline crash and sleep deprivation."

A survey of the rest of their friends prove Steve right. Piper is passed out across three chairs with her feet in Leo's lap and her head in Jason's who's messing with one of the bright blue feathers in her hair. Leo is leaning forwards against the table over Piper's feet and quietly twisting paperclips together in an odd pattern that Tony is examining over his shoulder. Natasha and Barton are sitting back from the table angled towards each other, each using their partners seats as foot rests as Natasha casually stabbed pieces of pepperoni off of her pizza.

Thor is consuming what looks like an entire ham and showing no signs of stopping while Vision simply sits in a corner, watching everything with incongruously human looking eyes. Frank's entire body keeps flickering between human and bulldog as he does his best to fight off sleep. Hazel seems to have given up on that fight and is snoring almost silently with her head on Frank's shoulder. Will is sketching patterns in condensation from his water glass on the table top and Nico is twisting his ring around and around his finger. Thankfully no bones are present to stitch themselves in to moving skeletons.

Reyna is quietly demonstrating for Bucky the right way to use chopsticks. Bucky is looking at his sushi as though dubious about how much sustenance he can possibly get from something that small. Annabeth is reading some kind of SHIELD schematic on a tablet she's borrowed form someone and Percy is sitting beside her, staring at an apple in front of him with his chin on the table like it might hold the secret to life.

Seeing that everyone seems checked out for the next few hours, Cassie turns and buries her face in Steve's chest. She'll have to get up soon to shower and go help more, but right now her head feels like someone might have stuffed it with cotton balls. "Wake me up in like an hour, okay?" she mumbles. She's not sure how much of the request is discernible but she feels Steve nod up above her head so clearly something must have gotten through.

Then she lets her eyes drift shut, and everything fades gently and mercifully to blackness.

When she wakes up next it is unfortunately not because Steve has gently shaken her shoulder. It is also, even more unfortunately, not anything like an hour later if the fuzzy off balance feeling she has is any indicator. No, Cassie wakes up to someone shouting.

At her.

What a joy.

"Cassandra Melody Morgenstern!" a girls voice whip cracks at her through the air, jolting her back to consciousness. Cassie jolts and so does Steve and between the two shocks they both almost go spilling off the chair. Only Steve's impeccable sense of balance and both of their reflexes prevents an unpleasant collision with the floor.

Cassie has to blink several times before her eyes and her brain are capable of communicating with each other again. When they can, the person shouting at her is revealed to be a brunette girl about five years younger than her with large brown eyes hidden behind brightly colored plastic glasses frames. She's wearing black leggings, bright red high-tops, and a green top. Meg McCaffrey, Daughter of Demeter.

"Why didn't you call me?!" Meg shouts. Frank's body resolves itself to human shape and Hazel jerks awake, blinking gold, luminous eye. Piper gives a jaw cracking yawn and straightens up, scrubbing a hand over her face. "You people all left to go fight of a robotic armageddon and I had to hear about it from a freaking tulip plant! Do you know how humiliating it is to have a bulb no more about what's happening in the world then you?! Oh that's right, you don't! Because all of you talk to each other!"

Percy straightens up, taking the apple in hand and tossing it contemplatively. "I get my news from horses sometimes," he points out.

Meg refuses to be discouraged and waves his words away. "That's different. Your dad is the god of horses."

"Your mom's the god of plants," Leo points out. Meg glares at him with a look that could probably peel paint off of a wall and Leo throws up his hands, tipping his chair back to get out of the line of fire.

At that Meg turns back to Cassie and actually stamps her foot in frustration. "Why didn't you call me!? You have my phone number! Your dad still owes me a favor. I could have called him. Then you'd have had a god on your side!"

Will braves the redirection of wrath to raise one hand. "Um technically," he says, gesturing at Thor who's still working on his ham and showing absolutely no reaction to the fact that someone new just appeared in their midst to shout at them. "We did."

To her credit, Meg looks genuinely surprised and turns to face Thor. "Oh," she says. "Right." She makes an awkward sort of half-curtsey motion. "No offense or anything Lord Thor. You're incredibly powerful and definitely godly. Like wow," she gestures at Thor's biceps. "All god right there."

Thor swallows a mouthful of meat and waves a hand jovially. "Be assured there is no offense taken most lovely daughter of Demeter," he says. "The tales of your defeat of your hideous step-father Nero have been spread throughout the Nine Realms. Many a toast has been drunk to the name of McCaffrey in the halls of Valhalla."

"You helped," Piper points out to Jason, nudging him with an elbow.

Jason shrugged casually. "To be fair I spent like a third of that whole situation dead," he conceded. A few of the Avengers glance over at him and Jason pushes the edge of his tee shirt down and to the side to reveal a puckered scar over his heart. "I fought Nero. Got impaled. Not very heroic but I came back later so," he shrugs again. "Not too upset about it."

"Your last words were nice," Nico chips in from his seat beside Will. "Very inspiring. Trust me not everyone does as well." When the eyes of the room fall on him it's his turn to shrug. "Dad keeps records."

"And you've read all of them?" Hazel asks incredulously.

Nico rolls his eyes. 'Well obviously not all of them. Lot's of people die. But everything's alphabetized. I've looked up a couple famous ones." He gestures over at Hazel. "I'm sure he'd let you take a look too if you wanted to."

Hazel actually looks a bit nauseated at the suggestion and shakes her head. "I think I'll pass. Seventy years in the underworld was more than enough for me."

"Good choice," Nico assures. "Especially if Demeter is visiting. Unless you find you've got a really specific craving for shredded wheat cereal."

Meg makes a small whimpering noise. "Gods my cabin has soooooo much cereal." Then she shakes her head like a dog getting water out of it's ears and refocuses on Cassie. "Why do I not rank on the call sheet for Evil Robot Armageddon?!"

Cassie has to take another moment before she can formulate actual, you know, words. Words. Words are good. Sometimes. Probably.

She means to say something like _why do you assume Armageddon has an organized call sheet? What makes you think anything to do with Armageddon has any organization AT ALL?_ but that's not what comes out. What she ends up saying instead is "How did you even get here?"

"About that," Leo says in a guilty voice. "See, my tool bag can hold literally anything in a machine shop, and since setting up with Calypso I carry around more plants sometimes. And like a month ago she gave me this like, succulent I think it's called. I stuck it in my bag and forgot about it. But I was digging around in there just now to find my pliers so I took it out and put it on the table."

At that Cassie glances down at the table top and sees a strange, somewhat spiky, mat-green, somewhat cactus like plant in a small reddish brown clay pot. She groans and turns back to Meg. "You plant traveled across an ocean and popped out of a succulent on a hellicarrier several thousand feet in the air to come yell at us for not calling you?" she says, trying to sound less impressed than she kind of feels. "Seriously?"

Meg glares. "The effects of my rage are less impressive without the visual element!"

"So, just to be clear, this girl is not someone or something that I should shoot?" Maria Hill checks. Cassie looks over at her to see that the woman has her gun locked and loaded and pointed at Meg.

"No shooting," Piper says soothingly. "This is our friend Meg. You can put the gun down now." It's not directed at her but Cassie knows her friend must be Charmspeaking because otherwise there's no way on this planet that Hill would lower her weapon that quickly.

Barton blinks at everyone involved but slowly lays the knife he'd had ready to thrown back on the table, light glinting off of the wickedly sharp edge. "Your friend Meg who just appeared out of a fern?"

Fury chooses this moment to enter in to the conversation. "It's a succulent," he corrects Barton casually. "A very young and healthy Echeveria elegans." Well, if he could have offered up any piece of random information to get everyone to focus on him, identification of plant types was probably it. "I'm allowed to have non-lethal hobbies," Fury shrugs.

"I'm pretty sure there are cactus and succulent varieties that aren't non-lethal at all," Natasha says.

Barnes nods. "She's not wrong."

"Fascinating horticultural revelations aside," Stark says. "Which, by the way we will definitely be diving deeper in to later," this part is addressed to Fury with the two fingered gesture for watching someone. Then he spins to look at Leo. "Your tool belt fits anything?"

Leo gives a crooked grin and it's the kind of expression that makes Cassie immediately start looking for the nearest source of cold water in case her friend suddenly bursts in to flames. Jason quietly inches Piper's cornucopia over to Percy and glances meaningfully from Percy, to the horn, to Leo, and back again. Percy takes the hint and grips the cornucopia in one hand just in case, gripping the apple in the other.

"Yeah man," Leo says. "Anything in a normal mechanic's workshop. Big stuff takes longer and the belt needs cool down periods. It's completely awesome! It's like, bigger on the inside."

Annabeth groans and leans forward, thumping her head against the table. "Who let him watch _Doctor Who_?" she groans, voice muffled by the table and her own hair. "I thought we had an agreement about this guys. No time travel machinery popular culture based phenomena for Leo until more highly qualified professionals with a more complex understanding of the spacetime continuum got the chance to try it first so that we could all avoid a potentially universe ending paradox. I _know_ that we had this conversation."

Leo looked confused. "What's _Doctor Who_?"

Stark began to explain the premise before any one else in the room could make a move to stop him and Annabeth groaned again, smacking her forehead down on the table. Percy set the cornucopia back down and instead used his hand to rub his girlfriend's back in a soothing pattern. The entire population of the room falls on some spectrum between confused, mentally pained, overwhelmed, and furious and absolutely no one has any measure of control over how the situation is unfolding.

With that in mind Cassie elbows her half-brother lightly in the side. Will, bless him, looks over at her and raises his eyebrows, asking her what she wants done without saying a single word out loud. It's a method of communication they perfected together when she became the head councilor and he became her second with power to assume command in her absence.

"Whistle please," she requests politely. "If order can't be reestablished soon Reyna and Frank's heads are both going to explode."

Will tips his head and raises his fingers to her mouth, emitting a sharp whistle as though he's trying to hail a cab on a busy morning in the city. Nico covers his ears with both hands and looks over at Will with irritation. However, Will and Nico never would have begun dating at all if Will hadn't been immune to Nico's bad temper. True to form, Will just shrugs apologetically. "Not even Apollo can fix exploded cranium."

The rest of the room falls silent and Cassie turns to Meg who is still glaring at her, hands on hips. If Cassie's being honest, the glare is starting to lose it's potency. "Look, we're sorry we didn't call you. No one really called anyone actually. It was more just randomly showing up. Next time we'll make a group chat. Maybe we can even call it Apocalypse Now."

This at least seems to appease Meg who claps her hands together and examines the food on the table. "Good. I give name approval. Now where's the kitchen in this place? You all need food that didn't come out of a magic horn."

"What's wrong with my magic horn?" Piper protested.

Meg is saved from coming up with an answer when there's a hesitant knock at the door which she answers without bothering to check who's there. As it turns out, it's the Maximoff twins. Wanda looks drained and pale but otherwise healthy though her eyes are red and puffy from crying earlier. Pietro is leaning against the wall next to her looking wan and generally like someone who has recently suffered from major blood loss.

Personally Cassie thinks that's pretty good for a guy who was technically dead for a minute less than twelve hour ago.

"Come in," Barton tells Wanda. "There are folding chairs by the wall over there."

Seeing no outright disagreement or protest against it, Wanda slowly steps inside, half carrying her brother. Cassie moves to get up and help but Meg McCaffrey beats her to it, bounding to a stop in front of Pietro. She appraises him with critical eyes, taking in the bullet holes and blood. "Well you look terrible," she comments bluntly. Then she frowns and points at the chairs by the wall, drawing them up to the table and opening them without touching them. Apparently, her household magic is stronger now.

"Go sit," she orders. "You need food."

Cassie thinks Pietro might be about to argue but instead the young man just shrugs after a moment and rubs his chin through his stubble. "What kind of man would I be if I did not obey such an order?" he inquires of no one in particular. Then he goes and sits next to his sister.

Meg gets to work and in minutes the raw ingredients she can pull from Piper's cornucopia in conjunction with a good knife have been transformed in to a fresh buffet any good caterer would have trouble finding fault with. Stark makes eye contact with Cassie and Reyna. "I'm hiring all of your friends," he announces.

This gets a frown from Meg who immediately starts firing off questions with machine gun frequency about weather she's actually being hired. Principally she seems concerned about housing, insurance, and weather or not Stark will let her plant a roof garden. Personally Cassie likes her odds.

"Are any of your other friends going to jump out of the plants?" Steve asks quietly in to her ear."

Cassie shivers as the warmth of his breath prickles over the skin at the back of her neck. She leans back so that she can speak in to his ear in turn. "With Meg here, this is pretty much literally _all_ of my friends except for like two people. I'll tell you more about her later if you want. For now just know that she's an amazing cook, and can make a fully grown plant out of any seeds you hand her. Plus the obvious travel skills."

Steve kisses the hinge of her jaw. "Everyone we care about in one place," he observes out loud. "I feel like I should take pictures. Last time-"

He goes silent abruptly and it only takes Cassie the span of a heart beat to realize why. She reaches up and cups his cheek, angling both of their faces for a gentle kiss as she squeezes one of his hands tightly in hers. Last time Steve had any sense of family he had almost immediately lost it. "When we get home we'll get you a new sketchpad," she tells him quietly. "You can draw this out. Remember it forever."

"Um, yeah," Percy says from the other end of the room, projecting his voice so that is carries throughout the space. "Remembering this forever would be good." Then he turns to Annabeth. "Uh," he says, sounding nervous. "Catch."

He tosses the apple lightly and Annabeth catches it automatically, then looks at it non-plussed. "I'm supposed to forever remember the day my boyfriend threw an apple at me?"

Piper makes a high squeaky sound probably audible to dogs that Cassie hadn't actually thought Piper was capable of generating. Piper just shakes her head when Annabeth looks at her in question and points at Percy. "Let him talk," she advises. "I'm just going to sit right here and cherish the moment." Then she shoots Percy a semi-covert thumbs up.

Cassie's confused too but probably a little less than Annabeth is. Most of the room is just shooting glances at everyone else to see if they have any idea what's going on. "Remember when we went on our first ever quest?" Percy asks, staring straight at Annabeth. "Argus dropped you, me, grover, and Cassie off at a bus that was supposed to take us to Los Angelos and because we got board waiting we played hackysack with an apple."

"I totally won," Annabeth interrupts. "Honestly you suck at that game."

"Why is the time we got board the part of this day that you people remember?" Cassie asks incredulously. "My memory focuses way more on the bus getting blown to hell in New Jersey and finding Grover's Uncle Ferdinand in Medusa's lair before she tried to turn us in to statues."

Steve's forehead wrinkles. "You blew up a bus? When you were twelve?"

Cassie shrugs. "Technically I was thirteen. Annabeth and Percy were twelve. And in our defense the bus blowing up had way more to do with the furies than it did us. Medusa was a lot harder to deal with. Honestly by the time we got to the insult sensitive poodle my brain was completely shot on the weird-o-meter."

"Insult sensitive poodle?" Reyna asks. "i don't think I've heard this story."

"He was running away from some rich people who had put up a reward offer for his return which he very nicely let us collect," Cassie explains. "His name was Gladiola."

"Guys!" Percy hisses down the table at them. "Not helping." Cassie spreads her hands in apology and gestures for Percy to keep going. He turns back to Annabeth and swallows. "Well Wise Girl, apparently back in Ancient Greece if a guy threw an apple at a girl it was considered a marriage proposal."

Annabeth's jaw drops so far Cassie worries if she might have cracked it on the floor. "Are you-"

Percy grins, the same crooked smile he's been giving Annabeth since both of them were twelve years old. "I figured I'd do it better this time," he says. "For one thing we've known each other for a decade and been dating for over half of that which means you definitely don't hate me anymore. Plus I've got a ring this time," he fishes a small blue velvet box out of his jeans pocket. " I wanted to ask in front of our friends," he says. "And they're all here minus Thalia, Rachel, and Chiron. But we've got some random super-powered Sokovian power twins." At that Pietro gives Annabeth a little wave which she actually returns in her state of shock.

"And we've got one of your personal inventing heroes, Captain America, and Bucky Barnes," he continues I checked with your parents too. Your dad said he's never been able to stop you doing anything before so why should now be any different, and I'm pretty sure your mom helped me pass my philosophy exam sophomore year of college so.."

"Stop babbling and give me the damn ring Sea Weed Brain!" Annabeth interrupts.

Percy gapes at her. "Is that a yes? Cuz you are so not making this asking thing easy."

Annabeth brings her hands up to her face to wipe away tears and Cassie realizes with a dull shock that this is the first time she's seen Annabeth cry since Percy got kidnapped by Juno all those years ago. "I'm never going to make things easy for you," she tells him. "Get used to it and give me the ring so you can marry me Kelp Head."

After that the two of them kiss and they're practically glowing with happiness so bright that it makes Cassie want to look away.

"There is a private bunk room reserved for you out of this door and down the corridor to the left," Wanda informs them.

Percy gives a thumbs up in her general direction and the two of them leave the room without breaking the kiss.

The door swings shut behind them and seals with a metallic click Cassie hadn't noticed before. The sound resonates in a momentary silence. Surprisingly Bucky is the one to break it. "What the fuck did I just witness?"

"Two of our best friends just got engaged," Reyna informs him. "We'll probably have to go to their wedding in a year or so. I'll make you wear nice clothes to it but I swear I'll make it seem worth it. Want a plum?" Apparently that's enough to satisfy Bucky's curiosity for the moment because he shrugs and takes the proffered fruit.

Stark is staring out the door contemplatively. "She's an architect right?" he verifies. "I might hire her to rebuild the place in Malibu."

"We're opening a firm together," Piper informs him, producing a business card from what might all be thin air. "I handle legality, Rachel Dare takes care of the business and some of the design stuff. Annabeth is the main architect. Our references include the majority of the Olympian gods." Piper taps the number on the card. "Call any time. You get to be our first completely human client."

Hazel is frowning a little. "Do we need to throw them a party? I think I remember going to an engagement celebration once in New Orleans when I was a kid. I had to wear a dress with ruffles and high shine shoes."

"On Asgard the union of two great heroes would be celebrated with the presentation of a great many gifts and a full month of night time merriment leading up to the wedding ceremony itself," Thor says helpfully. "Surely Greek custom is not so different."

At that everyone in the know looks at Piper who shrugs. "Don't look at me. Being the daughter of Aphrodite means I recognize love, not different marriage customs. Ask Jason, he's signature hero to the goddess of marriage. Who, by the way, hates Annabeth. We're probably going to need to do something about that before we hit the actual wedding day."

Jason sighs. "Calling me the signature hero of Juno is a bit of a stretch," he points out. "Jupiter had my mother sacrifice my life to Juno so that she wouldn't unleash her wrath on my mother for my existence. Then I was taken away to be literally raised by wolves. We never chatted about marriage ceremonies."

"Well that's," Hill stops, evidently searching for words. "A unique childhood. Seriously did no body call DCF for any of you people?"

Leo raised a hand. "My lovely auntie dumped me with them after my mom died." he revealed. "I shuffled around in the system for a bit before I ran away. Then the caught me and I ran away again, then again, then like, five more times before they gave up and sent me out to the Wilderness School in Arizona. That's where I met Jason and Piper."

Jason polished the lenses of his glasses contemplatively. "Did you really meet me there though? With the whole fake memory thing. I think you technically met me on a school bus on the way to the Grand Canyon."

"Annabeth, Percy, and I were all the subjects of a cross-country man hunt back in 2005," Cassie says. "That's the closest I ever got to being reported to DCF. By the time I left home there was nobody left to report me, Annabeth's dad I think always hoped she'd come back on her own, and Percy's mom is amazing so no DCF needed. Though looking back on it someone really should have reported his first stepfather because that asshole was definitely abusive."

Barton's eyes narrowed. "Do you have a name an address?" he asks, doing his best to sound neutral.

It's a good effort but Cassie has seen enough of Barton's file to know that talk of an abusive stepfather probably hits a little bit too close to home. "It got taken care of," Cassie assures him. "There was a thing with Medusa's head and now some gallery in Japan has some really weird statuary."

Barton holds her gaze for a moment and then nods sharply.

"Remind me to congratulate Sally next time I see her," Reyna requests around the peach she's eating. "Getting rid of my verbally terrorizing ghost dad was emotionally scarring enough that I held on to soul crushing guilt for like five years, and that guy was actively trying to kill me and my sister." She glances up and over at Hill. "No one called DCF for us either. We worked at a magic luxury spa for a while and then got kidnapped by formerly guinea pig pirates. Then i went and ruled New Rome and she became Queen of the Amazons."

Bucky shifts a little at that. "About this older sister of yours, is she going to try to murder me for dating you? Or am I just going to get gut punched or something?"

Reyna looks at him seriously. 'That depends, are you going to make me suffer mental, physical, or psychological pain?"

Bucky shook his head. "Wasn't in the plan."

"Then you and Hylla will probably get along fine."

Piper just shrugs and redoes one of the side braids in her long brown hair. "Well I never needed DCF. My dad shipped me off to the Wilderness School pretty much by himself because he thought I was a kleptomaniac and didn't know what to do with me anymore. Now we get along fine and he's directing plays out in San Francisco. Being an actor got less appealing at a point and we're all better off for it. He's got no idea about like seventy-five percent of the contents of my life but he definitely loves me."

The statement leads to several justified inquiries about how it can be possible for Piper's mother to be a Greek goddess without her dad knowing about it. The explanations are somewhat varied and a little rambling and Cassie is starting to find that just keeping her eyes open is requiring way too much effort. Steve seems to notice because Cassie can dimly make out his voice asking Wanda for directions to another empty room over the buzz of everyone else in the room speaking and talking over each other.

Wanda gives directions in her softly accented voice and Steve prods her gently to get her to stand. "Come on," he says. "We're banged up enough without trying to sleep in chairs."

Well, there's really no fighting a statement Cassie knows from her own personal experience to be true so she holds out a hand and lets Steve tow her towards the door. Suddenly she realizes that three people have been missing throughout this entire little powwow. "Where is Sam?" she asks. "I don't think he got hurt but I didn't see him or Rhodes in there. I didn't see Banner either. Did he change back from being the Hulk okay?"

Steve has the gentlemanly conduct ingrained in him enough to help her over a ledge between two corridors and then almost keels over from his own exhaustion. That worries her. The serum has made it so that Steve never trips or really makes any kind of accidental move at all. Without saying a word, Cassie steps closer to his side and tucks herself under his shoulder, both allowing him to guide her according to Wanda's instructions and taking some of his weight.

"Sam and Colonel Rhodes are busy calling people and coordinating. They came in at the second half of the battle so they've got a bit more steam left. Las time I talked to Sam he wasn't hurt but'll probably face an adrenaline crash sometime soon. Banner got changed back okay but wanted some space. Seemed like it might have been in the best interests of everybody on this boat to give it to him."

The fact that Steve is calling a freaking massive flying hellicarrier with the same capacities as a sea worthy aircraft carrier a boat is something that Cassie finds almost inexplicably hilarious. Clearly her post-battle exhaustion has hit the stage known by the parents of toddlers everywhere as 'punchy'. However, she hasn't actually got enough energy to laugh right now and some of her bruises tells her that the attempt might hurt her ribs.

Cassie lets the matter drop. If there is one man on the face of the planet who deserves to have their request for privacy granted, then that man is Dr. Bruce Banner. For now she's just glad that nobody she cares about ended up dead today.

They come to a stop in front of a metal door that looks exactly like every other door they've passed for the last five minutes. However, Steve leans over and pushes the door open so it must be the one Wanda Maximoff gave him directions for. Although in all honesty Cassie isn't sure she cares very much. All she really wants is four stable walls and maybe a mattress. Thankfully this particular box of steel has both plus a tiny shower which may actually be a sign that at least one of the gods loves them and wants them to be happy.

With an ungraceful slump, Cassie gives in to the forces of gravity and drops down to sit on the floor with her her back braced against the wall. "You should use the shower first," she tells Steve. "This armor has a lot of straps I'll have to deal with to get it off and you don't have hair to wash," she points out when Steve opens his mouth to form some sort of chivalry-based protest. "You'll be quicker than me."

The logistical accuracy of her statement is hard to ignore from a tactical viewpoint so she isn't surprised when Steve nods tiredly and heads in to the minuscule bathroom, peeling of pieces of his uniform as he goes. Suddenly it dawns on Cassie that he hasn't completely changed headspaces away from Captain America just yet. The part of him that is just Steve is hanging around somewhere nearby, but for the moment Cap still might be calling the more major shots.

She gives herself a mental shrug. Even if Steve is still stuck in Super Hero Mode there isn't much of anything she can do about it just now. Much as she loves her boyfriend she can't actually get inside his head. The best she can do is wait until he comes out of the shower and see where they're at by then.

In the meantime, Cassie gets to work on taking off her armor. Seriously, she hadn't been lying or exaggerating about the number of straps and buckles involved. Her fingers are uncoordinated in her tiredness but she's been able to handle taking her armor on and off since she was eight and the effort feels incredibly worth it once her body is free of the protective shell of leather and bronze. That relief is almost certainly based in the sudden and definitive reduction in the tacky sensation of dried blood on her limbs and midsection.

The next several minutes end up being devoted to trying to pick chunks of rubble out of her hair. A few of the pictures come away bloody and leave sore places along her scalp where they were previously embedded in her skin. She actually gives some serious thought to just flipping her head upside down and shaking it to let pieces of rock, cement, drywall, and the gods only know what else out of her hair.

The sound of the water shutting off prompts Cassie to move again and she starts thinking that it might be time to pull a Wicked and defy gravity but doesn't quite manage to get around to it before Steve walks back out of the bathroom wearing a pair of SHIELD issue dark blue sweatpants that must be leftover from before the organization fell. He's rubbing his head with a small white towel and looking decidedly less grimy and blood-soaked. He also happens to be carrying his shoulders at least two inches lower than he was before and Cassie supposes the hot water must have had had better restorative effects than simple cleanliness.

She wordlessly extends both of her hands in to the air towards him and wiggles her fingers. Steve, bless him, seems to understand what she's asking for because he crosses the room in three steps. Instead of taking her hands like she expects, he bends forwards and grips her gently high on her ribcage to lift her off the ground. It's a bit of a surprise move (though maybe t shouldn't be) and Cassie just manages to get her feet under her in time to stand on them.

"Thanks," she says, running her fingers over his shoulders where she had braced her hands for the lift. For some reason he hadn't bothered with a shirt after the shower but the view and sensation of bared muscle under her fingers is so incredibly nice that she doesn't bother questioning it. Steve nods silently, but doesn't back away, so Cassie leans back a little ways so she can look in to his face and not at his chest. She studies his face carefully. "You back?"

Steve blinks as though the question has surprised him but then his expression clears and he manages to give her about half a smile. His hands skim up her sides until he's cupping her face between them and then he's leaning down to kiss her. His lips are chapped and their pressure against hers sends a spike of heat straight down her spine and through every nerve in her body. His mouth against hers move almost roughly and the tone behind the sound that Steve let's out when they break apart a fraction for air is almost... restrained. Like he's caught between two things in his head and can't quite manage to break away from either.

Cassie nips one at his bottom lip to see if he'll make that sound again and is immediately successful. He pulls away at that, much to her disappointment, and rests his forehead against hers. "I'm getting there," he tells her between two shallow breaths. "Almost." He backs away by a tiny step but maintains a grip on her hands, apparently not willing to back away completely. "You should go enjoy your shower. It helps with almost everything."

Under better circumstances, Cassie might take this opportunity to tease. She might salute. Maybe she's even say something like 'aye aye Captain' and Steve might blush a bit and shuffle his feet. Then he might look at her with a wide smile and soft blue eyes.

On a better day.

Instead, she just nods and moves off to the bathroom, peeling off the remainder of her bloody, sweaty, clothes as she goes. The bathroom is less of a room and more of closet with nearly no space to move between the sink, toilet, and shower stall. If this space is cramped for her, how did Steve even fit in here at all?

Ah well.

Who cared about the laws of physics anyway?

Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, some other important scientific and engineering people.

Let's forget about them for now shall we?

Steve's left a worn cotton tee shirt on the counter for her. It's the top half of the SHIELD sweatpants he'd worn out of his own shower. Cassie supposes that solves the mystery of why he'd forgone a shirt.

There are little bottles of soap, shampoo, and even conditioner balanced on a small ledge inside the stall and Cassie makes liberal use of all there products. They're borderline scentless and probably incredibly low quality, the kind of thing you might expect to get in a cheap hotel room, but Cassie doesn't care. She's spent enough time in cheap hotels and worse places over her lifespan to have absolutely nothing against them.

The soap stings in the cuts that haven't closed yet but Cassie would rather deal with the brief pain of cleansing now than the burning fever of an infection later. The shampoo hurts even more and Cassie is actually grateful for the small pain. It focuses her and gives her a way to clear her mind more fully. Besides, she feels a million times more human with the grime and gore off of her skin and out of her hair.

Cassie stays in the shower with the water as hot as it can possibly be for long enough that the skin at the pads of her fingers and toes starts to wrinkle. When she turns off the water and steps out the small mirror above the sink is completely fogged over and the walls themselves feel slick with accumulated moisture. She swipes some of the hog away with her hand and actually takes a moment to examine her face, tipping her head from side to side to see the different angles. Her conclusion is that she doesn't look great, but now it's just regular tired not great and not directly post battle shitty.

She dries off as well as she can with a rough towel and squeezes some of the excess water out of her hair before slipping the tee shirt on over her underwear. There's no way to get her hair properly dry or brushed out so she lets it dangle down her back and messes with the hair tie she's managed to keep around her wrist. Memories of drastic hair tangling and the impossible difficulties it presents lead her to begin the task of twisting the strands in to a braid as she walks back in to the room.

Steve looks up at her as she comes in and Cassie knows without asking that he's managed to shake off the Captain for now. His smile is soft and tired, but warm and genuine and reaches all the way to his eyes. He's sitting on the foot of the cot the room has and holds out a hand towards her. "I can finish the braid if you want," he offers.

Cassie considers for a moment but decides there's no way he can make the situation any worse so she crosses over and sits crosse legged on the ground with her back against his needs and passes the mass of her damp curls back to him. He combs through it a couple times with careful fingers, gently picking out some of the worse tangles, and then begins to braid. It's actually a wonderfully soothing sensation and Cassie leans back in to his touch as he goes, weaving the strands together without tugging them and deftly avoiding the scrapes and small bruises along her scalp.

"Hair tie?" he requests, gripping the end of the braid with one hand and extending the other down in front of her. Cassie drops the tie in to his waiting palm and he deftly fixes it to the end of the braid to hold it in place. "Done."

Cassie reaches back and traces her fingers over the familiar pattern of interlocking sections of hair. "You're good at that," she says, not able to hide her surprise. "How's that never come up before?"

Steve shrugs and helps her stand in front of him. With him sitting on the bed and her standing up she's taller than him by a little bit but they're pretty much on a level. "I guess it wasn't relevant." He tugs lightly at her hip and Cassie follows the motion, sitting on top of his legs facing him, bringing her toes almost to touch behind his back. "Bucky's better at it than me," he says. "He had a younger sister, Rebecca. It used to be his job to walk her to her school in the morning before he went to ours, but she always refused to leave the house unless her hair was braided. He got good at it." He rubs his palms over her back in wide circles, tugging the shirt up a little with the motion. "When I started tagging along with them I started helping. My hands were smaller than." He lifts a shoulder as Cassie drapes her arms lightly around his neck, wary of any damage the serum hasn't gotten around to fixing yet. "Seemed like the thing to do."

She leans up to kiss him gently. "You know of course that now that I know this, you are officially responsible for braiding my hair on the mornings when I'm too tired and lazy feeling to do it myself."

"I think I could live with that." He leans back down to kiss her again and this team it's deeper and longer and like melted chocolate or diving in to warm, deep, water. Her fingers bury themselves in Steve's hair and one of his hands dips down, sliding under the hem of her shirt to find warm skin. This time, it's her turn to gasp as she feels his palm spread against her stomach and sweep slowly upwards.

Cassie has to pull back for air and presses a flurry of kisses down his neck and along his bared collarbone. Steve groans when she manages to work her way back to a specify spot near the corner of his jaw and the sound is enough to make her stay there, lavishing the skin with attention. His other hand falls to her other hip and he shifts his weight backwards, moving them both farther up the mattress.

His tongue does something to her shoulder that makes her shiver as white heat lances through her and then he's turning them over, his arms first forming a cage around her and then propping him above her. He fills her entire field of vision, the pupils of his eyes almost swallowing the remaining velvety blue. She raises one hand to caress his cheek and those eyes fall shut at her touch.

Steve shifts his weight so that he's holding himself above her on one arm and uses his now free hand to hold hers where it is. He turns his head and kisses each of her finger pads in turn before kissing her palm. "I love you," he utters seriously. "There were so many times today where we both could've died. You got kidnapped and we were attacked and everyone we care about has been about to die all die but all I could think was that I hadn't gotten to tell you that today, that I might not ever get to tell you that ever."

Her heart feels like it might be breaking a little and she lifts her other hand to his cheek, wanting to comfort and be comforted all at once. "Steve-"

He deftly catches that hand as well and kisses it fiercely before letting her loop it up and around his shoulders. "Last time I was on a sinking ship I had someone I loved and was too damned scared to say it before it was too late. I will _never_ let that happen again."

There's so little that she can possibly say in response to that pronouncement so she pulls him down to her to press kisses across every bit of his face she can reach. She kisses his cheeks, his nose, the hollow of his throat, and the thin skin of his eyelids. "I'm here," she whispers in to his ear. "I'm here. We are **_both_** right here. I am right here in this room, in your arms. And I-," she takes his face between her hands and makes sure he's looking straight at her. "I love you too."

His eyes shut again and Cassie sees him swallow hard in the dim light of the room as he nods.

Then his arms tuck themselves underneath her, fingers running between the material of her shirt and the skin of her back and sides. His mouth meets hers in a series of kisses that scorch her nerves from her head to her toes and everything around her above and below is Steve. The only thing left to do is reciprocate in kind. Every single pore of his skin and ripple of muscle- every movement he makes practically screams love and Cassie can only pray to every god she knows exists and some she has yet to meet that she is doing the same.

She doesn't have the breath to speak, he doesn't leave her the chance to take it so she tries to speak with her hands, and kisses, and the movement of her body.

 _I'm here._

 _I love you._

 _I'm alive._

 _We're here._

 _We're whole._

 _We won._

 _I love you._

 _We won._

 _I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you._

For now, these are the only words they need.

 **A/N: So that's a wrap on my version of AOU. What did you guys think of it? I know it took a little while but I had to move out, and then back in somewhere else, and then lost power for a little while and couldn't use the computer. Hopefully it was worth it in the end! I thought it was about time Annabeth and Percy got the happy relationship progression Uncle Rick seems so reluctant to right. I also tried to incorporate some elements from events in the Apollo books (partly to freaking fix them!) hence Meg. I've got some plans for her coming up. Possibly involving Pietro? Let me know what you guys would think of that happening because nothing's set in my mind with that quite yet. I also decided to keep Bruce on Earth which I was a bit up in the air about when I was writing this chapter. It just seemed like that's where things were leaning in my head during the writing process. Whatever you thought about any of it, I'd love to hear it. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxooxoxxo**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: Nothing is mine. That's really all I have to say on the subject.**

The Hypnos cabin sometimes got a bad wrap around camp and with the Legion. The reasons for this were fairly obvious. By nature, they were left with genetics dictating conditions nearing diagnosable narcolepsy. By extension this made it impossible to entrust them with any job involving any object or surface that was hard, sharp, on fire, etc. In conclusion, generally useless for combat either in teams or one-on-one.

However, Cassie is of the opinion that sleep is a wonderful thing.

She wakes up what she guesses is probably about six solid hours after she and Steve manage to drift off. Her mental and physical states are both improved immensely given that her head no longer feels like some small demon has dedicated time to filling it with cotton wool. Her mood is further improved when she notes that the thing that's woken her is a narrow shaft of sunlight falling through a tiny porthole in the steely wall on to her face.

Cassie roles over in the light, moving gingerly as some of her remaining bruises twinge as a remembrance to what she's pretty sure was some nice family's poured cement wall. With a bit of maneuvering she manages to prop herself up against the wall behind the cot and takes the time to thoroughly embrace the buzz of energy seeping through her pores and in to the rest of her system. Her own senses tell her that this influx of power is finishing the work of knitting together the last of her damaged skin, muscle, and tissue.

With the last of the damage healed, Cassie luxuriates in stretching her arms and fingers out in front of her with a yawn she tries to keep quiet but doesn't quiet manage to. She probably would have managed it if her jaw hadn't cracked. Unfortunately, one of the small side effects of rapid healing was joint stiffness, making the popping adjustments par for the course.

The sound ricochets up from her mouth to her ear, which just at the moment doesn't feel quite far away. Wincing, Cassie raises one hand and massages the protesting hinge socket. Logically she knows that the pop is no different from a cracked knuckle or back, but there was really no stomping instinct sometimes.

A mumbling sound beside her alerts her to the fact that Steve is now awake too. The murmur of sounds continues a moment, but is made unintelligible by tiredness and the relatively thin material of the mattress Steve's face must be flattened against. All Cassie can see of him is the blonde hair sticking up and ruffled from sleep on the back of his head.

Actually, the whole visual is adorable.

One of Steve's hands extends over the mattress, patting and stretching along the space, clearly looking for her. "'Ssie?"

Oh. He's trying to get to her name. Who really cared about clear articulation at a time like this.

Cassie reaches out and takes his hand between both of hers. "I'm here," she assures. "It's still early."

At that he makes an undignified and indistinct sound that comes out as "mph" but could mean anything. Then he shifts his body across the mattress and stretches one arm over her hips, resting his head in her lap to use it for a pillow. "Somethin' wrong?"

Cassie lowers both of her hands to his head and strokes her fingers through his hair and over his scalp. "No," she nearly whispers, lowering her head a little closer to his. "Nothing." She ducks down, bending nearly in half and drops a kiss against the bare skin of his shoulder blades. "Go back to sleep."

A gratifying shiver coasts along his spine and Steve turns his head towards her stomach, burrowing further in to her body. "'ats good," he mumbles, and this time it's Cassie's turn to shiver as the vibration of his voice presses directly in to her. Both of his arms loop around her back, one propping her up and the other holding her against him.

She feels the more deliberate pressure of lips against her navel and applies gentle pressure along the back of his neck near his hairline and the edges of his ears. Steve sighs contentedly and Cassie finds herself echoing the sound, leaning in to the unconscious support of his body and letting her eyes slip shut. She continues the slow, steady, movements of her fingers through the softness of Steve's hair and small kisses land against her skin intermittently.

For a while, time passes on like this. Like dragonflies in amber. The impression is only heightened by the soft golden light filtering in to the small space.

Eventually, Steve sighs again, but this time the sound is more resigned. Then he rolls over, looking straight up in to her face, blinking sleepily. Cassie let's her hands fall back, resting against his shoulder which is no longer around her waist and instead propped behind his head along her thigh. "Good morning."

His voice is roughened by sleep and probably the battle and Cassie finds it unnamable sexy as a vocal tone. "Good morning."

He smiles up at her and takes one of her hands, kissing the fingers and then cupping it against his chest over his heart. Cassie spreads her fingers to absorb the rhythm of his heart echoing through his ribcage and chest. A moment later, Cassie feels the beat shift subtly, pausing before the start of a new phrase to align with her own.

The pressure over her fingers increases slightly as Steve's hand tightens on hers. She feels as much as she hears or sees his sharp intake of breath. "I'm not sure I'll ever get used to that," he says, almost to himself. Cassie looks at his face and sees that his eyes must have shut again. They open again as she watches as though he can feel her eyes on him. "Do you feel what it's like when you do that?"

Cassie frowns briefly and actually thinks through the feedback of sensation she gets when Steve's heart beat changes to match her own. "It's difficult to describe," she admits. "It's settling. Like hearing a set of notes played the right way in a song." She shrugs. "Your heart is very steady. Constant. Why? What does that feel like to you?"

Steve reaches up with the hand not holding hers, twining around the end of the braid he had fixed there the night before. "It's like everything that's out of rhythm just stops for a moment, then restarts better," he says. The look on her face must leave some kind of evidence that he's not explaining things the way he wants to. The hand at the end of her braid reaches up farther and cups her cheek. "It's like I can feel you," he says. "The rhythm of you."

The blue of his eyes is deep and calm, like still water at the base of a cliff. It's also desperately sincere and concentrated, willing her to fully understand what he's saying. Cassie's pretty sure she does. She smiles again and dips her head to kiss him. Steve seems to grasp what she's going to do on the way down because he grins and shifts his hand to cup the back of her neck and pull a little.

The kiss is warm, and deep, and lazy. The way morning kisses are supposed to be.

Somewhere in the midst of it, Cassie's hand trails away from his heart only for Steve to tug it back again. Then he pulls away from the kiss but keeps his forehead pressed against hers. The change happens more quickly this time and Cassie feels his brief shudder as the rhythm of his heart clicks in to hers. "There," Steve smiles again and tips his head up a little to kiss her forehead. "People tell stories about the people they love making their hearts skip a beat. But mine actually does sometimes."

Well really, for that she has to kiss him. She has absolutely no choice in the matter. None at all.

This kiss is longer, messier, and more feverish. It's perfect and utterly consuming and all in all they're well on their way to shutting out the rest of the world for the next several hours when their preserved slice of peaceful happiness is shattered by a knock at the door. The reminder that the rest of the world won't just go away and leave them alone just because they helped save it yesterday is jarring to say the least.

Cassie groans as Steve makes a rather vocal and yet completely inarticulate noise of displeasure. She doesn't understand the words, but finds herself thoroughly on board with the sentiment. Cassie gives his shoulder a half-hearted shove which Steve allows to shift him slightly. "Go answer it," she tells him, attempting to get up.

"Why?" he grumbles, and Cassie is forced to purse her lips to keep herself from laughing. For a super soldier national icon, her boyfriend sometimes pouts like a young child, and that fact is frankly hilarious. It's also something Cassie plans to forever keep to herself. She isn't necessarily a possessive person, but she still likes the fact that there are some pieces of Steve that only she will ever see.

"Put it this way," Cassie says, attempting to move his arm from around his hips. He isn't pressing her down really, but he's bracing it a few inches above her hips and the effect is not dissimilar to a steel safety band on a roller coaster. "Between the two of us, you are the one who has pants that will actually fit."

Steve narrows his eyes up at her and then casts a meaningful glance down at the rest of his body. "Not at the moment."

Cassie rolls her eyes but can't actually argue the point. "Let me rephrase," she says. "Between the two of us, you are the one who has pants that will fit them located somewhere within the confines of the particular metal box that we have been so graciously allocated within the slightly larger metal box we're flying around in."

This time it's Steve's turn to let his eyes rotate in their sockets. "Your dad's not also the god of lawyers is he?" He does push himself up though, releasing Cassie who rolls sideways to let her feet land on the floor before he changes his mind. The pounding on the door is starting up again and Cassie won't have the self-control to pay attention to it if Steve decides he doesn't care. On the distraction scale, her hot boyfriend wins out against anonymous door knocking every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

"Not law," she corrects. "Oratory. Themis is the goddess of law. She's technically a minor goddess. I met her on Mount Olympus once. Interesting conversationalist, though it's really hard to avoid an argument. You have to pick your moment, and make sure Nike's not around. Goddess of victory," she adds at Steve's confused look.

Steve looks like he might have something he wants to say but then thinks better of it and shakes his head. "Remind me to start a new list. I need to look up more stories about your family. Otherwise I have the feeling I'll end up spending the rest of my life confused."

The casual mention of the rest of their lives makes Cassie grin and she braces her hands on the mattress to plant a kiss on his forehead, smoothing the crease of confusion lurking there. "Part of the fun of a relationship is learning new things. With me, we'll never run out of them." She straightens up and scoops the shirt she had been wearing the night before from off the floor, pulling it over her head on the way to the bathroom. "Get the door. I'll see how much salvageable clothing we've got."

She slips in to the bathroom and feels more alert and awake after using a finger and some generic provided toothpaste to scrub her teeth and splashing her face with hot water. Then she goes on the hunt for clothes. This proves a little more difficult as body armor may be protective, but it generates and traps sweat like nobody's business.

A brainwave washes over her and Cassie pulls the under layers from both of their sets of armor. This leaves her with jeans and a close fitting tee shirt and Steve with what essentially amounts to a set of under armor. She upends the remaining shampoos and soap on the fabric and rubs it around to help it soak in. Then she blasts everything thoroughly with the shower head.

Now everything is clean and smells much better, but given that it's dripping wet it isn't exactly wearable. After a moment to consider she figures anything is worth trying once, and holds out her palms. After a moment to concentrate she feels her palms heat, and a strong current of warm air flows from her hands and out over the fabric. Within a minute, the clothes are dry and at least in the short term, completely wearable.

She slides on her own clothes and then ducks out of the bathroom, taking the dried inner layer of Steve's clothes with her. Steve is standing in the doorway talking to Maria Hill. To the woman's immense credit, she appears to be looking studiously in to his face instead of at his bicep, abdominal, or pectoral muscles. It's a truly exceptional display of self-control as Steve's still shirtless and all of those muscles are bared and on full display for the interested individual.

"Here," Cassie says, walking up behind Steve and holding out the undershirt and the tee shirt she had worn out of the shower yesterday. "Both are clean-ish. I did my best to wash the armor in the shower. The regular tee shirt might be your better option. I put it on right out of the shower and was only actually wearing it for like, ten minutes."

Steve's face quirks in to a small smile as he reaches out. "I think I'll go with the tee shirt until I can get this through a fully modern washing machine. I did all of my probably unnecessary repeated wearing of battle clothing in 1944." He leans down to kiss her temple and then lifts a shoulder towards Hill. "I'll go get ready. Hill'll fill you in."

Cassie shrugs and tosses the shirt she's holding at the bed. Steve turns from the door and heads toward the bathroom to do his own morning washing up. Cassie turns expectantly to Hill. The woman is holding a styrofoam cup with a brown plastic lid in each hand and Cassie raises an eyebrow at it. "If one of those cups holds coffee you intend to give to me I might actually give you a hug."

Hill makes a face like she had just suggested sacrificing a small animal to appease a Christian Satanic being. "Well now I'm questioning giving it to you."

"Fine," Cassie relents. Then she brightens up, changing tactics. "If you give me the coffee then I swear I will never initiate contact with you ever so long as we both shall live unless explicitly granted permission to act otherwise."

Hill makes an impressed face as though in appreciation of her negotiating skills. "I respect your bargaining skills," she acknowledges, passing Cassie a cup of steaming caffeine. "I'm considering that agreement binding," she warns as Cassie takes her first sip.

Cassie inclines her head in understanding and swallows down a mouthful of coffee, letting the molecules buzz through her system. "So what are we doing?"

She can almost visibly see Hill switch over in to mission mode. "We've spent most of the night getting in touch with customs and immigration offices in the E.U. to see which of them would take in refugees from the disaster and how many. Anyone with family members is going to join them in the rest of Sokovia. Everyone else is being dispersed between Spain, France, England, Switzerland, and Italy. We've also been getting damage reports. The property damage is of course, irreparable. But the good news is that we got enough advance notice to evacuate roughly eighty-five percent of the inhabitants before Ultron showed up. Another twelve percent of the population is on board here." At that she gave Cassie a searching look. "Your friend Piper has some serious mojo."

Cassie keeps her face neutral while at the same time mentally celebrating the fact that the fatalities were likely confined to double digits. Maybe that doesn't sound so fantastic, but given what could have happened she'll take it. "I was kidnapped while the evacuation was happening," she says lightly. "From what I've heard, Wanda Maximoff and Piper together got the job done."

Being a high level secret agent, Maria Hill must understand the value of keeping things close to your vest because she seems to accept that she won't be getting any more information out of this conversation. "We've gotten reports of hundreds of injuries. The Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders are going to be working over time on a lot of the survivors, but there were surprisingly few that'll require real long term care or surgery."

At that Cassie nods and takes another sip of coffee before passing the cup back to Steve as he makes his way out of the bathroom fully clothed. and looking like he combed some water through his hair. "I used most of my energy last night on Pietro Maximoff, but get me a few more thousand calories and some vitamin E to kick off my morning and Will and I can get that number lower. Can you get me some kind of list prioritizing the worst of them? I should probably start there."

Maria nods economically, all business. "The carrier came with a few minions. I'll have one of them get you something to work off of."

Steve comes up behind Cassie, brushing one hand over the small of her back. "Food first," he tells her seriously.

Cassie rolls her eyes but cuts any hostility out of it with a small smile. Steve's been so good about reigning in any of the overprotective instincts he has when it comes to her. And that isn't just now or facing Ultron, it's everyday when he now knows she might get attacked by a monster in the street, and each night when he watches her go out on patrol alone. He cares so incredibly deeply about his friends and loved ones, and that he can't really protect her during most of her every day life is probably disquieting on a level bordering on painful.

"I believe you did hear me say that the consumption of a few thousand calories is first on my to-do list," she reminds him, using his shoulder to tug herself up on to her toes so she can kiss his cheek. "I'll even let Will make sure the nutrition levels are balanced and take a multivitamin." She drops back down off her toes and takes his hand. "There are literally several hundred people on this boat who need you worrying about them more than I do today. Okay?"

Steve sighs and leans over to kiss her hair. "Fine. I'll multi-task."

That's not quite perfect, and it's on the tip of Cassie's tongue to tell Steve about the study she had once read concluding that it takes a human brain approximately three thousandths of a second to switch from one thing to another. However, she thinks now might not be the time to get in to it. Steve's impossible to shift once he's chosen the hill he wants to die on and they don't have that kind of time.

Hill turns and begins to make her way down the hall. "If you'll follow me, I'll show you where the mess hall is on this thing."

Five minutes and several identical corridors later, they're in a very large room that could have belonged in any public school on the planet. It's fairly crowded with displaced Sokovians, but they find Reyna and Bucky holding down a table in the corner farthest from the door. Leo is sitting with them, covered in engine grease, clothing singed, as he contentedly munches on a breakfast sandwich.

The Maximoff twins are huddled together a little apart from the other three, murmuring to each other in hushed Sokovian. Pietro has a frankly inconceivable amount of food piled on a tray in front of him and seems to be trying to convince his sister to try something that may or may not be oatmeal. He must not be making very much headway because Wanda is picking away at a singular muffin without much enthusiasm.

Cassie and Steve load up their own plates and go to join them. Steve sits down beside Bucky and Cassie sits between him and Wanda and across from Reyna. "Where's everyone else?" she asks.

"Annabeth and Percy haven't shown up yet," Reyna says. "I for one, am not about to go looking for them. What I might see if I do is not something I'm interested in having clarified."

"Fair enough," Cassie concedes with a shudder. She pokes a spoon in to a slightly dubious looking strawberry yogurt. "I'm guessing from the food quality that Piper is also unaccounted for at the moment?"

Leo swallows his mouthful and then chips in. "Actually, she, Meg, and Frank are up top distributing food to the people who couldn't come down here and entertaining some of the kids. Last time I saw Jason he was trying to explain to Thor that he was not his son."

Reyna almost spits back out the bite of breakfast she had just taken and almost chokes. "Seriously?"

"Oh yeah," Leo says casually. "So like first thing this morning the big guy just walks up to Jason and then gives him an electric zap as a greeting. And well, you know that doesn't really work on Jason, but he'll definitely feel it. So he jumps like eight feet off the ground and zaps Thor right back on some sort of instinct thing. Then Thor just kinda stops and looks at him, then next thing you know he's grabbing Jason's face in both hands, tipping his head around, and then asks 'if he fathered this one'. Apparently it's taking him a little longer than it should to explain that he is not."

"Please tell me that this got recorded," Reyna says fervently. Leo grins wickedly in response and wiggles his phone at her with the hand not clutching his breakfast and Reyna smiles. "I expect you to send that too me."

"Ma'am yes Ma'am," he replies with a mock one-handed salute.

"Anyone who worked overnight is crashing now," Bucky informed them. "I think that includes Rhodes, Wilson, Levesque, and DiAngelo. Last time I saw Stark he was on the phone talking with Pepper. Barton and Romanoff are up on the bridge with Fury and Banner's talking to Doctors without Borders and the Red Cross." He inclines his head towards Cassie. "Your brother left about five minutes before you got here to stock up on medical supplies."

Cassie nods and indicates her breakfast. "I'll head up and join him once I finish this." A thought suddenly occurs to her. "Is this thing taking us home eventually or are we going to have to fly commercial? Because we might have gotten some good will from Zeus lately but Nico, Percy, and Hazel all in his domain at once might be pushing it."

"Thor and Vision have agreed to help out on the flying thing," Reyna informs them. "Our bigger problem on all this is going to be the media."

The reminder makes Cassie groan and have to fight the urge to bang her head in to the table. "Exactly how much of us battling a robot army with demigod magic made it on to the internet?"

Reyna shrugs and pops a grape in to her mouth. "Not as much as there could be. All the magic being used completely shorted the cellphones in the area so the only people who can actually see what happened are eye witnesses. What with the Mist, the shock, and the language barrier, I'm pretty confident the exposure won't be too severe. Unfortunately reporters are starting to swarm the area and anywhere we might drop off refugees. We should probably keep the others hidden when we land. They've already seen you and me so that ship's probably way out of the harbor and sailing away."

This time the groan isn't something Cassie can repress and she drops her head in to her hands. She feels Steve reaching an arm around to rub her back in a gesture he's clearly hoping is soothing. "Wait," he says. "If the- the Mist," he stutters over the vocabulary and Cassie knows that for as well adjusted as he is conceptually, his brain is still trying to grasp a lot of the details. "Can cover up all of your friends, why isn't it hiding you?"

"Exposure," Cassie mumbles at the table. She turns her head and looks up at him through one eye. "Remember when I explained about how you could already mostly see my abilities and me because you'd already met Thor?" he nods so she continues. "Right. Well. The public already knows who Reyna and I are. If someone who already knew looked at us using our abilities, they'd see us more clearly. They might not have seen all of the magic we were using, but they'll know we were here and fighting and helping you all somehow. It's not a catastrophe, but there's gonna be questions we're gonna have to answer."

Bucky tips her head down in to her field of vision. "Or we could just... not?"

Reyna rolls her eyes as Cassie straightens up and pats Bucky on the shoulder. "I'll explain to you why ignoring the media and letting them draw their own conclusions is a bad thing later. Meanwhile, no one talk to anyone until someone from Stark's legal department goes over some of what the press are saying."

Leo lets out a laugh that Cassie personally thinks is closer to a cackle. "Your dating lives are hilarious."

"Leo," Cassie says conversationally. "I suggest taking a moment to consider who you're mocking." She points at each person around the table one by one. "Me, Reyna, Captain America, the Winter Soldier. How many of us do you want to piss off and who do you think will punch you first?"

The question manages to shut Leo up in a way that no other inquiry ever has before, eating quickly and taking off after, muttering something about the engine room. It probably helps that Bucky makes direct eye contact with him and flexes the articulated metal plating of the fingers on his left hand, making a fist and casually examining it. Whatever else Bucky knows how to do, he has clearly mastered the completely non-verbal threat. Really non-verbal everything. If he could ever work out the kind of mind reading Wanda Maximoff is capable of, Cassie isn't sure he'd ever speak again if he didn't absolutely have to.

Just as the thought articulates inside her mind, she looks up and catches sight of Wanda's tiny smile. It's barely existent, but it's there. It's more than a little bit disconcerting to think that the girl had probably overheard her thought and found it amusing, but this is the most positive expression of emotion Cassie's ever seen from her so she's willing to roll with it and maybe give up a little mental privacy for a while if that's what it takes to earn the girl's trust and get her out of her shell some.

With that in mind she turns and faces Wanda directly. "I don't mind if you listen to my thoughts," she says calmly. "But I'm warning you now that there is a lot of crap in my brain you don't want to see. Also, if we're setting ground rules, I would prefer you to stay away from my memories. And generally speaking, eavesdropping when you don't have to is kind of rude."

Wanda starts as though surprised at being addressed. "It is not on purpose normally," she says slowly, her accent making the words a little stilted. "What I hear is like... a low buzz. Sometimes a thought with a louder voice, from a stronger mind will become clearer. Listening to minds- it is not the main thing that I do. It takes quite a lot of effort. Normally I need contact unless I know the person well." She bends a warm smile on her brother. "I can always hear Pietro if I want to."

Pietro pulls a face that makes him look every inch the beleaguered brother. "It is inconvenient," he mutters. "I have been able to get away with nothing for over a year."

Cassie brandishes a spoon at him. "If I were a more in your face personality type I would now deliver a lecture on the dangers of signing up for questionable scientific testing without knowing what the experiment will actually do."

"Uh," Steve hums, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I signed up for questionable scientific testing without knowing what it would to me."

Bucky punches him in the shoulder. "And you ended up fighting a war, getting frozen for seventy years, waking up in modern day, destroying the government agency your first ever girlfriend built, horrible stage punching Hitler every few days, and selling bonds in a USO show with dancing girls and tights. If all of that doesn't spell unforeseen consequences I don't know what does."

Steve sighed. "I really thought we'd reached a point in time where we could forget about the tights."

"No one is ever forgetting about the tights," Cassie tells him. "They're on vintage posters and actually printed in history books. Those tights are literally, preserved for all time. Get comfortable with it."

"Banner performed his own scientific testing and ended up with the Hulk," Reyna muses. "I think that beats out knitted blue tights on the unforeseen consequences scale."

Wanda flinches at the reminder of the Doctor. "I would like to find Doctor Banner at some point," she says determinedly. "I owe him an apology, I think." Then she looks around the table, locking eyes with Steve and Bucky. "I owe you both apology. The rest of the team as well. What I put you through was nothing short of cruel, and I apologize."

"Well I can't speak for any of the others," Steve says. "But if you're dedicated to making different choices now, then all I care about is what you do next." He moves his gaze over to Pietro. "As far as I'm concerned that goes for both of you."

Both twins nod and Wanda looks to Bucky next who shrugs. "I don't judge people forever based on their worst selves. Hypocrisy isn't my thing."

With those words out Wanda's shoulders visibly relax and Wanda takes a deep breath. Then she surprises Cassie by leaning over quickly and giving her a hug. Cassie returns it after a moment to adjust. She can't help noticing that the girl is almost painfully thin, her bones sticking out against her skin. "Thank you," she says fervently. "My brother is alive because of you." She pulls away and takes her brother's hand as she stands up from the table. "Neither of us will ever be able to repay that."

Pietro sketches a bow in her direction. "If ever you need to get somewhere in a flash. I am ever and always at your disposal." Then he winks and scoops up his sister, and both twins are gone in a blur of color and a burst of wind.

The rest of them disperse not long afterwards. Even a super soldier with a hyper metabolism could only ingest so much mass produced government ration derived breakfast before reaching the conclusion that the calories weren't worth it anymore. Considering that both of the soldiers in question lived of of World War II army K-Rations for two years, that was seriously saying something about the quality of the food involved here.

Reyna borrows Cassie's monster-proof phone and gets on the line to talk to Pepper about handling the media. Bucky and Steve take over reuniting scattered family members. Bucky speaks both Russian and Romanian and apparently between them there are enough loan words for him to work out Sokovian. Steve's a natural task master and organizer so between them Cassie has no doubt that things will get done.

Cassie herself heads off in search of Will. She finds him in the process of setting a broken arm for a grey haired woman up on the deck of the helicarrier. He looks haggard and exhausted it suddenly strikes her that her brother probably worked all night, took fifteen minutes for breakfast, and then got right back to work. Will perfectly typifies the cliche of good doctors being bad patients.

"Go sleep," she says, shooing him off. "You worked all night so I could sleep curled up with my boyfriend, let me take the day shift so you can go see yours." Will opens his mouth to speak but Cassie holds up one hand to stop him. "I am not accepting arguments right now," she declares in the voice she used to use when she needed something done as the head counselor for the Apollo Cabin at camp. "I am officially invoking my Big Sister status and ordering you to go find Nico and get some rest."

Will deflates and turns a tired smile on the woman he had been treating. "You're going to be just fine," he says soothingly. The lady probably can't understand his actual words, but his tone is the reassuring pattern of medical professionals the world over. "My sister is going to finish your arm." He stands up and Cassie moves to take his place and accept the extra bag of mortal supplies he scrounged from the Red Cross earlier. He puts a hand on her shoulder and leans down to kiss her forehead. Her little brother has always been taller than her. "Thanks big sister."

She grins and gives him a small push towards the door leading down below deck. "You're welcome little brother." She watches until he's around the corner and out of even her line of sight and then turns back to treat the broken arm. She does a cursory exam of the two pieces of bone and gives a warning that what she's about to do will hurt. Again, she's not sure the words are understood but her voice must make the message clear. The woman nods at her to do it and grits her teeth. Cassie holds up three fingers so she can see and counts them down one at a time before yanking the two pieces of bone in to alignment.

At the moment she doesn't have the materials or the time to make a plaster cast. Instead she makes do with a more basic splint and uses a scarf to tie her arm up in a sling. She reaches in to the it to measure out a painkiller, estimating the woman's weight. However, the woman reaches out and closes her fingers over the pills before she can hand them over. She shakes her head firmly. "No. Not me."

She's refusing medication. Cassie stares at her for a long moment then nods and puts the pills away. She won't force anybody to medicate if they don't want to, and their supplies aren't unlimited. Still, she makes a mental note to come back and check on this woman later if she has time. Maybe she'll offer again if any of the medication remains.

Unfortunately, as the day continues it starts to seem less and less likely that she'll have any supplies left at all. She sets bones and fractures and braces sprain after sprain. She relocates so many joints she looses count and disinfects and bandages innumerable cuts and scrapes. She uses magic more sparingly and only on patients who won't be able to remember that it's been done. Most of those sufferers come off of a list of prioritized urgency delivered to her by one of Maria Hill's underlings about an hour after she gets started.

One of those injuries is a severed spinal cord and the reversal process is long, draining, and complicated. She has to weave back together the tissues and nerve endings and melt and re-fuse the bones and vertebrae using magic. It takes her about twenty minutes to do, but by the end of it she thinks she's probably saved a twenty year old man from living the rest of his life as a quadriplegic.

She's just catching her breath from finishing up with that when Hazel comes sprinting around the corner. "Cassie!" she exclaims. "Come quick. There's a little girl-"

Cassie doesn't wait for him to finish. She's in motion before she can think twice. Hill's list can take a little hiatus for now. Damaged kids will forever and always be her own priority. "Show me!"

Hazel sprints out in front of her, heading back the way she'd come and Cassie keeps pace, turning where she does. They end up in a secluded room sealed off from the rest of the ship and Cassie realizes immediately why they've called her. The girl is maybe four years old on the outside and there's blood running from a hundred small cuts all over her arms and legs.

That's not why they called her.

No.

Cassie's been called because this little girl has fire shooting out of her hands. She's crying and hysterical and clearly unable to control it. But there's fire rolling off of her palms and spraying from her fingertips in streams. Whatever this little girl is, it's not fully human, and no one else will be able to get close.

"Okay," she mutters to herself. "Problem solving." Problem one is getting past the fire and close enough to the little girl to help her. Getting her healed is, for now, problem two. Finding her parents will be problem three. Always assuming they're still alive.

She squares her shoulders and steps forwards directly in to the literal line of fire. She throws up her hands like she's catching a ball not a shoot of flame and hopes like Hades that this is going to work. Fortunately, the flames stop, collecting in the space between her hands. She concentrates and imagines sucking all of the fire in the space in to one concentrated ball.

Then she begins the arduous task of picking apart the molecules of energy that make the fire sustainable. The only time she's ever done anything close to this before was when she'd defused Tony's repulser blast right after he learned about Bucky. This time is easier, and Cassie doesn't know if it's because she's tried it before or because flames are more within her natural power scope than synthetically generated energy is. Regardless, this isn't a skill she particularly wants to practice.

By the time she's done, she feels tired and buzzy all at the same time. It feels like she's been running for twenty-six hours on espresso shots. Weirdly, her hands feel kind of numb and burning, like she used one of those prank iPods that zaps you with electricity when you hold it for too long.

The little girl isn't shooting fire any more, but she is still crying. Cassie sighs and does the only thing she can think of doing which is to move forward, sit on the room's small cot, and scoop her small form up in to her lap for a hug. "Shhhhh," she hushes in what she hopes is a soothing voice. "Hush. You're okay. It's all going to be fine." She funnels some of the excess energy out of her body and in to healing the cuts that cover her body.

The little girl buries her face in Cassie's shoulder, whole body shaking with her sobs and Cassie just holds her, rocking back and forth. She looks over the tangles of dark hair surrounding the girls face to see Frank and Hazel standing in the doorway. "Do we know anything?"

Frank shakes his head. "Not much. She was with a bunch of other kids we were bringing food to. She was still crying then, but the fire didn't start until a couple of the parents came to pick up their kids. When the thing with the fire kicked up I got her here where there wasn't anything flammable and Hazel went to find you."

"And the cuts?" Cassie asks. She's never seen using an ability cause physical damage to the wielder like this before, and she knows Hazel and Frank would have both tried to find her sooner if they'd seen the injuries. That leaves her wondering where they'd come from.

Hazel frowns. "She was wearing a sweater earlier. The fire burned through it. The cuts were underneath."

That at least makes sense and Cassie nods. Before Leo met Calypso and started wearing only her specially woven fire proof fabric, he had burned through his clothes pretty often by accident. A quick glance tells her that the little girl only looked like she was wearing shorts because the material of her pants had been burned away from the knees down.

"Hey sweetie," she says, addressing the little girl. She looks up with huge brown eyes, tears still streaming from the corners and down her little cheeks. "Hey," Cassie faces a smile on to her face though she doesn't much feel like making one. "Do you understand us? You can just nod or shake your head."

The girl nods several times, still managing to look at Cassie. She's almost holding her breath like she doesn't want to keep crying. Cassie rubs her back in big circles and keeps up a small back and forth rocking motion. "That's great," and she says it sincerely as the job of figuring out what to do with and for this girl is going to be hard enough without a language barrier. "I'm Cassie," she says. "That's Frank and Hazel. Can you tell us your name?"

"Katya," the girl says, swallowing hard like she's still trying not to cry. "Mommy says Katy."

"Mmhm," Cassie says, untangling a few of the tangles in the girls hair with her fingers. "Can you tell me where your mommy is Katy?" She asks it as gently as possible but the little girl's lip trembles and she starts crying again, pointing out the tiny porthole in the carrier's wall towards the ground. "Right," Cassie breaths, she'd been hoping for a different answer but expecting this one. She tucks the girl in to her shoulder. "Okay honey. That's okay. You're safe. We'll figure out what to do."

She looks over at Hazel and Frank again. "I don't want to leave her but there's a lot more injured to treat. Can you guys run out and find one of the team to come be here?" Hazel opens her mouth to offer to do it herself but Cassie intercedes. "You've got to get out there and run Mist intervention," she reminds. "Try to find Leo. He can entertain Katya and besides, he's fireproof."

They nod and go off, but the person who comes through the door next is Tony not Leo. "I hear we need someone to come play babysitter?"

"I sent Hazel and Frank to try to find Leo," Cassie says. It's not that she thinks Tony Stark is incapable of caring for a small traumatized child, it's just that Tony Stark is not who she would choose to even try it. Really, she doesn't think she'd put Tony in charge of caring for a child, or someone in trauma. The cross section of the two doesn't up the odds.

Tony shrugs. "Well they found me instead." He pushes off of the doorjamb and makes his way over, sitting on the ground in front of Cassie and the girl. "So? What's the damage Roman Candle?"

"Now's not the time for a nickname Tony," Cassie hisses.

"Not talking to you Little Miss Sunshine," Tony says' Cassie notes for the first time that he's looking at Katya not her. "So," he raises an eyebrow. "What gives?" Katya sniffs and rubs at her eyes with a knuckle but amazingly the crying seems to be slowing down. She watches Tony with huge eyes, not blinking and eventually Tony shifts and pulls a few tiny pieces of metal out of his grease stained pockets. "Why don't you climb down and play with me. I need to finish off these things." With a squint, Cassie can see that the objects are minuscule wind up toys.

Katya turns and looks up at Cassie as though asking for reassurance. Despite her misgivings, Cassie can't ignore the fact that Tony and his little toys might be distracting for Katya if her dad is who Cassie thinks it is. Besides, she's stopped crying since Tony had come in and hasn't picked it back up again. She smiles and nudges the girl forwards. "Go on," she says with more confidence than she feels. "Tony will look after you."

She doesn't know how good four year old comprehension is, but Katya seems to understand because she releases her handfuls of Cassie's shirt and climbs off her lap and on to the floor to sit across from Tony. She examines a few of the toys with careful deliberation, and then selects what looks to her like a life-sized replica of a monarch butterfly. Her fingers run over the shape and dart to a small switch in the antenna. The butterfly hums to life and suddenly the delicate metal wings begin to flap and the toy takes to the air, saying in a small circle before landing back on Katya's palm.

The girl giggles around the last of her tears and Cassie sees Tony give a tiny smile, like he's glad he can still make something that causes innocent happiness after everything that Ultron has done. He picks up a minute metal bunny rabbit and twitches it's ears, bringing the critter to life as it begins to hop in circles across the floor. Then he extracts two water bottles and a half-crushed bag of crackers.

Cassie stands quietly, and makes her way out of the room.

She gets back to work treating the injured and keeps Hill's list of necessities on hold a little longer to treat more children. Then she gets back to her prioritized list and is in the middle from moving from a woman with an almost pulverized femur to a Red Cross volunteer who judging by appearances is doing this as a gap year between high school and college. His left foot is nearly severed and Cassie prays to her father as she repairs the tattered bones and sinew. She doesn't try to replace the lost blood. She doesn't have the energy left and with the wound sealed the boy's own system will take care of it in due time.

She spins, thinking longingly of finding a bottle of water and wondering if she should report Katya and her predicament to Hill when she runs smack in to Steve. "Wow," he catches her as she regains her balance. "Are you alright? I've been looking for you."

Cassie nods. "I'll be fine. I've left Tony Stark babysitting a four year old girl with magical fire powers. But yeah, everything's fine."

Steve lifts a hand, looking commiserating and brushes his fingers over her cheek. "I just checked in on them. Not a fire in sight. Romanov pulled up some information on the girl. Turns out she's five years old. Her mother was Iliana Kovatva born in Sokovia but went to school in the states. According to hospital records, she came back home to Sokovia to have Katya. We don't have the mother anywhere in the records for the refugees. It's still possible she'll show up but..." he trails off helplessly.

Cassie sighs and tips her head in to his palm, lifting her own hand to hold his. "But it's more likely that that poor little girl is an orphan now," she says, completing the grim thought. "There's no mention of her father anywhere is there?"

Steve shakes his head. "I figured she might be like you."

"Probably," Cassie agrees. "Possibly more like Leo than like me, but the same basic idea."

This time Steve nods. "I saw some of what Valdez did during the battle. Does that make Katya his half-sister?"

Cassie considers for a moment. "That's the most likely scenario. She might be a child of Vulcan and not of Hephaestus. That would make her Roman instead of Greek, but with a kid that young..." She trails off, shaking her head. "Gods Steve she's _five,_ " she blurts out. "That's so young. Even for a half-blood. WE can send her to either camp we want to, and they will take care of her, but five is so little. Annabeth was seven when we got to camp, I was eight, and we were the youngest half-bloods to attend in years. Jason went to Camp uniter when he was four and that's the youngest I've ever heard of."

Steve catches her in to a one armed hug and presses a fervent kiss against her forehead. The arm he's hugging her with is still bearing his shield and she can feel the pressing rim of metal against most of her back. "I'm sorry," he tells her.

Cassie sighs and nuzzles her head in to his chest. The shield is the only piece of his uniform he's still wearing and Cassie wonders if he's holding it for identification rather than protection or combat. "It's not your fault," she tells him. "It's the fault of gods, and monsters, and Ultron, but it's not your fault. I just- I know where that little girl's life is going, and it's really not so bad. There are worse ways to grow up I know- I just wish that there was something I could do to help her."

His arm tightens around her and Cassie let's the sound of his breathing and the warmth of his body soothe her fraying nerves. The shield blocks her from view completely, providing a welcome barrier between them and the rest of the world. She'd never been one to enjoy fighting with a shield. You couldn't use one with a bow and that was by far her best weapon, but now she feels like they might be becoming her favorite type of defensive armor.

Suddenly, Steve stiffens and pulls a few inches away to look down at her. "Katya's like you," he says slowly. "And she hasn't got parents.

"Uh," Cassie says, wondering where he could possibly be going with this. Steve's staring at her intensely and she can almost see the cogs in his brain spinning. "Yes. Legally she's an orphan. There's probably paperwork that has to be done by whichever camp she ends up going too. She probably won't be claimed for sure for a few years. Maybe when she's eight or nine."

Inexplicably, Steve's face splits in to a grin and he drops a fast, hard, kiss against her mouth. "I have a plan."

Cassie feels her eyebrows shoot up. "And you are a man who is star spangled. Are we about to burst in to a spontaneous musical number? Because I have to say, the impact without music and background dancers is going to be significantly less impressive."

"No," Steve says shaking his head. He leans down and kisses her again and then backs away. "I've got to go. I think I have an impulsive genius to emotionally manipulate."

He takes off at a jog and Cassie blinks after him. She opens and shuts her mouth twice before shaking off the weirdness and making an attempt to get back to work. The question of what Steve could have possibly meant churns away in the back of her mind for the next few hours as she treats more of the injured, wondering if she should be asking each woman she sees if they're missing a five year old girl with dark hair and big brown eyes.

And Steve had said he was manipulating an impulsive genius.

She assumes that that means Tony, but what is her boyfriend planning on getting him to do? Steve isn't incapable of manipulation or persuasion, it's just that he doesn't normally see the point. If he's changing his tune now well, suffice it to say she's a little bit worried about where this chain of events is going to end up.

Four hours later, the place where this situation turns out to end up is with Anthony Edward Stark sitting on the floor with Katy asleep in his lap surrounded by wind up toys in various stages of assembly and coloring paper. He's using the holograph feature on his phone to absorb all of the information in existence on Katy, her mother, Greek mythology, child care, and most shockingly, international adoption law. He's also got a file up there accessed, compiled, and sent by Jason, Reyna, Frank, and Annabeth, on demigod psychology and trauma and Cassie knows he's watched the Camp Half-Blood orientation film.

On the middle of the screen is a projection of Pepper Potts sitting curled up on her couch wearing leggings and cradling a mug of tea. It's the most casually dressed Cassie has ever seen her, though the look on her face is closer to CEO than every day person. "So to summarize," she's saying when Cassie enters the room. "I left for one week and you created a homicidal AI, gave JARVIS a body, saved the world, levitated and then blew up part of a city, recruited two new team members who used to be on the same side as the homicidal AI because someone used Stark Enterprises weapons to kill their parents, and to cap it all off you'd like to adopt a little girl who blows fire when she's upset."

"Yes," Tony confirms. "All correct. And who better to handle a spontaneously combusting child than people with an entire tower full of droids that can be programmed with fire extinguishers?"

Pepper lifts one hand and rubs at the crease between her eyes with her thumb. "I don't know Tony," she says tiredly. "You said she's like Cassie and Reyna. Maybe they would know somebody-"

Cassie chooses that moment to intercede slightly. "Technically yes we do," she says. "Either one of our camps would be able to take care of her, but it's not like growing up with parents. She'd have elder siblings and teachers, but not a mother or really a father either." She shrugs and makes sure Pepper can see it. "Don't get me wrong, this might be insane. But- well," she shrugs again. "It's not the worst plan ever."

Pepper tips her head, considering. "You support this?"

Cassie catches sight of Steve sitting with Bucky in a far corner giving her a not-so-covert thumbs up sign. She looks back at Katy's sleeping face, Tony's determination, and Pepper's worried apprehension. "I think you start with temporary fostering," she says. "It's easier to arrange legally. It would give you both time to try out the idea of parenting and give Katya time in a safe, secure, space to grieve her mother and adjust to what her life is going to be now. Reyna and I can take her to different camps for short visits so she'll feel more comfortable if one of the camps ends up needing to be her permanent home." She spreads her hands. "If you feel up for it- I don't know. It might end up being.. emotionally healthy-ish for all three of you."

With that said she feels like she's thrown in her two cents and all of the relevant information she can possibly provide and backs away towards her boyfriend who is either brilliant or insane for coming up with this. Based on his history, maybe the answer is both.

"She's a genius Pep," Tony adds. "You'll love her. She's bright and smart and already stronger than a kid should be." He's seizing whatever tiny advantage he thinks he can find. "She built the entire animated cast of Bambi with real moving joints and wind up springs out of scrap engine metal and paper clips. Plus we've got two demigods in house to help handle the curve balls. Where else on this entire fucking planet is all of that gonna be true."

From her angle it's hard to tell, but Cassie thinks Pepper's face might be softening. She sighs. "Let me see her again?"

Tony immediately reaches out and tips the camera of the phone down so that Katya's in the scope of the image. "Since yesterday she's got no one Pepper," Tony continues, voice softer and more pleading than she's ever heard it. "I- I screwed up on something and now she doesn't have parents or a home. She lost it because of me. I can give it back. We've got space, and money, and time to do what we have to to give her everything she needs in a way no one else can. But c'mon Pep. You know what I've got to work off of you know what my parents were like. You know I can't do it without you. I wouldn't even know how to start to try to do it without you."

There's a long moment of silence and Cassie sees Steve crossing his fingers. Tony looks like he's holding his breath. Then Pepper sighs again. "Alright," she says finally. "I'm not saying it's all going to work long term but we can try. I'll talk to some of our lawyers and have the fostering paperwork drawn up for us to go through all together when you get home tomorrow morning. I'll talk to Reyna about a press release so we can control this. Do we want to let her pick and decorate a room or should I call a kids decorator?"

From there the conversation dissolves in to the technicalities of what they're about to do and Cassie turns to look at Steve. "You did this?"

He shifts and almost blushes. "I made some suggestions," he murmurs. "About how Katya would need somewhere to go where people would understand her, and that Pepper might like a little girl and how Howard would have wanted to see him to do better than he did with more than just weapons and business. Turns out more of it stuck than I thought. Fifteen minutes later he was hacking websites and calling everyone he could think of for information before calling Pepper." He sits down against the back wall with his shield beside him. "It all kind of spiraled."

Cassie takes a deep breath and slides down the wall beside him. She lays her head on his shoulder and takes her hand between both of hers. Soon they'll both get up and get back to helping the apparently never ending stream of people that need them. In about three hours they'll make their first landing and the refugees who had no family to go to in Sokovia will begin to disembark. Life will continue to go on and evolve with them as they live it.

"Yeah. Well what else is new?"

 **A/N: So there it is guys. Sorry it took a bit but I've had some family stuff to deal with. My sister is going through some stuff and needing a lot of support right now. If anyone out there has any advice on how to help a loved one with an anxiety disorder I would really appreciate hearing it. Anyway, tell me what you thought! Do you guys like the plot line with Katya? I know it's a big change from cannon, but her inclusion is part of the idea I have floating around for how to adapt CACW. Plus Tony and Pepper as parents is something I think could be endlessly entertaining if I get it right. Anyway, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxxoxoxoxxooxxoxo**


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Don't sue me for the nothing I own.**

The hellicarrier is impressive but decidedly slow when boarded to capacity with passengers. Fortunately, refugee disembarking begins at about three AM the next morning. Fortunately for the greater purpose of relocating traumatized people and getting them all home. Not so fortunately for the sleep cycles of anybody involved in the process.

Really, each individual disembarking at this first drop off is physically stable and not in need of any help that Cassie can provide so technically speaking she could have slept in. However, this is where the first demigods in their group start to break off and Cassie gets up to see them go. They save the world all together more often than some people, but it still wasn't something they did everyday (every Summer was a different story). She feels like some kind of hosting edicate probably dictates a formal goodbye.

Stark agrees to lend Barton a quinjet from the Stark Industries hanger in Berlin to fly back to the farm with Natasha for some well deserved rest and relaxation. Apparently Laura Barton has offered Dr. Banner a guest room in the house for a while so that he can decompress with a sense of normality and relative isolation while still not completely cutting himself off from the world. Leo hitches a ride too so that he can pick up Calypso and the two of them can head back to the Weigh Station and their own life together.

Cassie sees Tony and Leo swapping contact information before Leo departs. She diverts a certain level of mental focus in order to avoid calculating the likelihood that this friendship might involve a lot of important objects and or buildings exploding. What's done is done and it's too late to change it. Her life is weird but to the best of her knowledge time travel still is not a thing that exists.

Because time travel is ridiculous and could only ever exist in science fiction movies...

Right?

Anyway, Cassie's up at the ass crack of dawn to say goodbye and can't for the life of her get back to sleep once the sun is up. It's a lost cause, so instead of trying to fight the inclinations of her own body Cassie makes another cycle through the refugees as they disembark. She distributes ice packs and bandages and even gives a few vaccinations to kids out of kits given to her from MSF.

Early childhood inoculations are a very public big deal to her boyfriend and Cassie has the benefit of medical school telling her how risky and stupid it is to rely solely on herd vaccination. Taking the time to hand out a round or two of flu vaccinations and tetanus booster shots is definitely something she can do. Especially if her body clock is going to be screwed up by time changes and traveling different directions in relation to the sun.

She wonders if Katya got all of her scheduled inoculations. Cassie makes a mental note to pull some of the strings she has access to and try to find the girl's full medical history. A week ago, she would have just asked JARVIS to find the information for her. Now that's not an option any more.

Missing an AI is a strange thing. It's not like JARVIS is a real person she saw or had a mental image for, but she still interacted with him every day of her life since moving in to the tower back in 2014. He had been Cassie's friend.

In so far as a disembodied British voice in the ceiling could be your friend.

It was probably a fairly sad comment on Cassie's life to admit that she'd worked with less than that before to establish friendships.

Has she mentioned yet that her life is extremely weird? Because it definitely is, and has been, for an extremely long time. Apparently, the new AI is a female Irish voice named FRIDAY and will soon be installed to take over all of the functions that JARVIS had used to handle. The weird factor isn't going away at any point in the near future.

The next people to disembark are Hazel, Frank, Nico, Will, Piper, and Jason. They depart from an airport in Portugal on a commercial flight paid for by Legion credit and go at the much more humane time of twelve thirty in the afternoon. By then everyone is awake and fully functional, some brave souls are even that way without the aid of coffee which Cassie finds about three steps beyond impressive.

Will had wanted to stay to help with medical support but Cassie had forced him to go. Her little brother is a fairly powerful demigod and an extremely skilled healer but he's been running himself ragged for days now and can't recharge the way she can. Nico helps drag him off the carrier and makes sure their bags are packed. Cassie makes them all promise her in turns that they'll call when they land safely.

Air travel for the children of Poseidon AKA Neptune, or Hades AKA Pluto has gotten less risky in the last five years or so as Zeus/Jupiter's twitchiness level had decreased. However, it still wasn't a sure thing and Hazel and Nico were going to be traveling together. The last time Zeus had decided to smite children of Hades he hadn't cared about leveling an entire hotel full of innocent bystanders to get the job done. One passenger plane of unrelated people wouldn't hold him up if he decided to get nasty or forgot to check before he blasted.

The fact that his own son would be on the plane as well could potentially not be a big enough obstacle to make him more careful. Thalia, Percy, Zoe, and Cassie had all once been blasted off of the road on Mt. Tam with a lightning bolt. Thalia's gut assumption that it had been her dad trying to take a powerful and potential dangerous piece off the chessboard might not have been correct but it hadn't been baseless either.

Thor hears them discussing the potential problem as Jason is about to get down to praying to his dad and offering a sacrifice to get his attention in the hopes of avoiding potentially being vaporized. When the situation is explained to him he offers up his own personal brand of protection blessing for the trip. Apparently he's taken a liking to Jason, regardless of weather he's actually his son.

As they leave, Thor tells Jason loudly and very clearly that he should come and visit he and Jane in the Tower the next time he's in New York. Jason looks somewhat hesitant to accept the offer of a dinner date with a Norse god and his girlfriend but nods anyway. Cassie supposes when a god asks you to come visit, you couldn't really just ignore the invitation.

She still thinks that this particular relationship might be a good one to foster for both of their sakes. Jupiter isn't a touchy feely kind of god and she's pretty sure Thor doesn't currently have any demigod children who aren't already in Valhalla and technically dead. The fostering of good relationships and training in humanity and power over flight and electricity in turn are good things. Even if the static shock level in the Tower does increase to frankly manic heights during the aforementioned visiting.

Thor himself opts to stay on the carrier until it reaches New York so that he can check in with Jane before taking Vision to see Asgard and meet other beings of similar power. It's also possible he's doing it to help make sure Zeus doesn't try to vaporize Percy. He's good company either way and is endlessly useful in the entertaining of small children which lets their stressed out parents relax for a few minutes.

Percy provides a little help to that aim as well simply by giving piggy back rides and telling the kind of fairy tale stories he must have learned to tell his little sister. He and Annabeth had both emerged from their room looking damn near incandescently happy at around nine in the morning. For her part, Annabeth had gone in to a planning huddle with Reyna and Pepper on a conference call and come out with a palpable aura of organizational efficiency. The two of them had both decided to stay aboard until the carrier finally landed back in the United States. Hopefully the low speed and relatively low traveling altitude would provide another barrier between Percy and the wrath of any irritated sky gods.

The rhythm of health checks and vaccinations Cassie falls in to gets interrupted some time mid afternoon when a hand taps on her shoulder. The position of the sun and the length of the shadows tells her it's about two in the afternoon but she can't actually tell where in the world they are right now. Besides, her body clock is so freakin' thrown at this point that someone could tell her it's seven o'clock in the evening and she'd probably believe them if she were inside when they said it.

The person who tapped her shoulder turns out to be Tony Stark with Katya by his side holding tightly to his hand and almost hiding behind his leg. "I'm taking a jet and getting Katy out of here. She's seen enough and Pepper's had time to set up her room by now. If you and the Cap or anyone else wants a ride out of here before the end of the week I'm the last shot."

Cassie nods and begins craning her neck to try to find Steve in the crowd. She hasn't seen him since waking up this morning and exchanging a quick kiss. They'd both been so fuzzy-headed with sleep that the kiss had landed on her ear and Cassie had managed to plant her lips somewhere in the vicinity of his nose, but she likes to think it's the thought that counts.

He and Bucky had gone to help organize disembarking and help carry off anyone too injured or too young to walk by themselves. People have been flowing on and off of the top deck of the carrier like the tide all day and Cassie hasn't been looking. She's just been doing her job and trying not to get swept away.

A flash of red cat he's her eye and Cassie waves to get the attention of Wanda Maximoff. The girl sees her and makes her way quickly through the crowd. People part around her, giving her a wide birth and by narrowing her eyes Cassie can see a faint red haze around her hands. Somehow, Wanda is influencing people away from her to clear the path.

"What is it?" she asks in her softly accented voice.

"Stark's taking a jet to get Katy and some of the rest of us home," she explains. "You and your brother are free to stay here until the carrier lands, but if you want off now that's how it's happening.

Wanda looks from Cassie to Stark who shrugs and then down to where Katya is staring up at her with large round eyes. She offers a smile and then looks up at Cassie again and nods. "I will tell Pietro that we are leaving. If he is with your friend Meg, should I tell him to bring her along?"

Cassie exchanges a glance with Stark who shrugs. "Jet seats ten before things get cramped. Pick smart. I'm going to go get Katy settled." He turns and leaves without another word, boosting Katya up on to his shoulders so she won't have to fight through the crowds. In the back of her mind, Cassie wonders how much the little girl understands about what's changing in her own life.

Putting those thoughts aside with a mental shake of the head, Cassie turns back to Wanda. "Yes if you could get in touch with your brother and have him bring Meg with him that'd be great. Also, could you ask him to look for Steve? I haven't seen him since this morning."

A bright smile breaks across Wanda's face. "Finding Captain Rogers is not difficult," she says. "He thinks very loudly and very clearly. His mind is that way," she points off over Cassie's left shoulder. Her face softens. "He is wondering where you are and worried that you will not have remembered to eat today."

Cassie rolls her eyes but can't help smiling a little at the same time. "Thanks for the pointer," she tells Wanda. "You should get to the jet with Meg and your brother. I'll go hunt down my hypocritical worrywart of a boyfriend. He'll know where Bucky and Reyna are and we'll meet you guys in about ten minutes."

Wanda nods and Cassie turns, going in the direction she had pointed out. With the beginning directions provided, she manages to find Steve within three minutes. He's taller and blonder than most of the assembled crowd and sticks out pretty well. Actually, Cassie figures she would have been able to find him herself pretty easily if he had been standing up the whole time instead of bent over unbending some metal plating on the hellicarrier guard rail.

He turns in time to see her coming and opens his mouth to speak as she approaches. She holds up a hand to forestall him. "I have not eaten yet today apart from a granola bar but I'm pretty sure you haven't either so don't ask." Steve raises his eyebrows at her and Cassie relents. "I had to ask Wanda for help to find you. Apparently you think loudly."

"Good to know," he says. Then he frown and reconsiders. "Though privacy says I should probably do something about that." His frown deepens. "What do I do about that? How do you think quieter?"

Cassie shrugs. "No idea. I didn't have the mental fortitude to ask if I think loudly too." She shrugs. "We might have to figure out a new way of life living with a telepath. Maybe just mentally whisper on purpose and ask if it makes a difference? Out of all of the weird powers in my friend group telepathy has never actually featured before now."

Steve angles his head up and over the crowd as he reaches out to take both of her hands in both of his and bring her a step closer as the crowd jostles around them. "And our new resident telepath is where exactly?"

Cassie steps in to him further. "Stark's taking a jet home to get Katya out of here. He offered the rest of the team a ride. The others are taking it. I thought I'd come see if you, Bucky, and Reyna wanted to also. Our only other option is hanging out here until this thing can get across the ocean back to the states."

He takes a step in closer as well until Cassie's nearly has to stand on his toes. If she tilts her head back she can pretty much see the mental debate spinning through his head. It's not really in his nature to leave people behind without leadership if he thinks they need it. On the other hand, they've been running almost non-stop for nearly a full week and Steve must want to go home as much as the rest of them do.

It is possible, just hypothetically, that Cassie may be able to slightly push along this decision making process.

She squeezes his hands and leans a little way in to his chest. "I can stay here and treat injured from now until this thing lands. Gods know there's enough people who could use the help, but the list isn't ever going to end and eventually I am going to be out of both supplies and magic. We can stay here to try to organize people and shepherd them around but we've all got limits, and unlike say MSF or the Red Cross, we don't actually have much experience with this. Maybe it's time to let them take over."

Steve looks at her, reading her expression, and then back out at the people around them. Then he nods and ducks down to kiss her forehead. "Okay. Let's go home."

Tension Cassie hadn't known she was still carrying releases and she rolls her shoulders to relax them further. "Alright. Great. But we've got to get to the jet and get on it in like the next five minutes and I have no idea how to find Bucky and Reyna. If any of our friends is going to leave without us for being late it's Tony."

Steve sighs and rolls his eyes in exasperation. "Yeah he probably would. I'll get Bucky. Hang on." He steps sideways and up a step so that he's a little bit taller than the rest of the crowd. He cups his hands over his mouth. "Marco!"

Cassie blinks at him in confusion. She's also kind of wondering if her boyfriend is finally cracking under the strain and going insane. Which would be to bad. As relationship obstacles went, insanity was a pretty big one.

Then from out of the crowd a voice that is definitely Bucky's replies "Polo!" A moment later Cassie sees the voice's owner emerge with Reyna right behind him. His metal arm blinks in the sunlight as he waves at them.

Steve nods once decisively and steps back down. He catches Cassie's stare and shrugs, blushing faintly. "We used to do it during the war."

"Okay," Cassie murmurs, holding her hands up in ultimate surrender, clearly saying without words that she isn't going to question the ifs, ands, whys, and hows, of her boyfriend and his best friend playing a child's pool game in the middle of active war zones during World War II. She might ask about it later because she feels like the explanation might make her laugh. If it does she'll make sure Reyna hears the story too. They could use a little laughter and it might be hard to come by in the immediate future.

Reyna disconnects her hand from Bucky's and wanders over to join her. "Did you know this was a thing they did?"

"Nope."

"Huh," Reyna considers for a moment and tips her head. "I can work my way around to considering that a cute quirk. Jamie's hot enough for me to get used to the metal arm. I'll extend the acceptance to using Marco Polo as an audio location strategy."

Cassie spreads her hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture. "Some girls are stuck dealing with guys who still live in their mom's basements."

Reyna snaps at her and makes little finger guns. "That is an excellent point and I commend you for making it."

An arm loops around Cassie's waste from behind and Bucky reappears over Reyna's shoulder. "You two can mock our methods but not our results," Steve says. "We are alive and still able to find each other after seventy years. I'd say that's a win wouldn't you Buck?"

Bucky shrugs. "Whatever Punk. As far as I'm concerned they can mock all they want. We've finally managed to coordinate working double dates and I have it on good authority that no one has ever recorded our methods of battlefield location."

"We aren't about to tell anyone," Cassie assures. "Seriously, cross our hearts," she makes a gesture that she thinks might be close to a Girl Scout pledge symbol. Steve makes a face at her and Cassie quirks an eyebrow. "No?"

He shakes his head. "Not even close. But I'm a guy who gives points for credit."

She leans up to kiss his cheek. "Nice of you."

It's at that point that Bucky gets down to the main matter at hand. "Yeah okay. Leaving the topic of how you got us over here behind, let's move on to the why?"

"Stark's got a jet revving up to go," Cassie explains for what feels like the millionth time but is in actuality just the fourth or fifth in the last ten minutes. "There are seats open for us but if we want to take them we need to get in to them now before he takes off out of impatience. The Maximoff twins and Meg are already on board," she glances at Reyna. "Personally, I'd like to be on board with Katya in case there are any other freak outs like the one yesterday."

Her friend gives a curt nod. "Understood. I know Annabeth and Percy already decided to stay on board until New York with Thor around for back up in case of godly wrath. The others already left so we're what there is for demigod containment. Besides, you're pretty much fire proof and Katya seems to like you. I'm good for calming presence. Where is this soon to leave jet?"

Steve gestures back over the crowd to a different deck of the carrier which has been kept clear of people to let craft take off an land up until this point. "The sounds of annoyingly revving engines makes me think the the answer to that question is, 'that way'."

With that establish they kick in to a relative jog to get over to the jetway and get on board. It was amazing the crowds that Bucky could clear with his metal arm and the right degree of menacing expression. If Cassie was less aware of his kill account and stunningly high degree of capability to commit murder she might even call it resting bitch face... Though probably never out loud.

Bucky and Reyna climb in first and Cassie is about to follow them when a thought strikes her and he leans backward. She places her face near his ear and shouts a bit to be heard over the increasing engine noise. "Do we need to wait for Sam and Rhodey? I haven't seen them at all this morning. They might not know we're leaving."

He had stilled to listen to her but now shakes his head and uses one hand to propel her up the last step and in to the jet. He follows directly after her and shuts the door behind them. "I saw Sam when I stopped for a food break earlier this morning. He said he wanted to stay on the carrier to help coordinate with the military and organize the people Fury called up from SHIELD. Rhodes is still talking with military and government people on the ground in at least three countries."

Personally, the thought of the scenario makes Cassie shudder. She isn't particularly ADHD, especially by demigod standards, but that level of multitasking still sounds like hell. And that's even before trying to wrestle multiple languages and time zones in to the equation. Colonel Rhodes is certainly one person who's job description and requirements she will never envy.

"I'd sit back and buckle up back there," Stark calls from the cockpit. "I've filed a flight plan to break the sound barrier once we get out over the ocean. According to the parenting books, establishing a consistent bedtime is important. Pepper wants to start building a schedule ASAP."

If she cranes her neck Cassie can see Katya curled up in the copilots chair with her knees pulled up under her chin. Her eyes are red and a bit puffy and Cassie casts around for a water bottle. Crying is surprisingly dehydrating, especially when your body was too small to actually contain much of a high water volume. Kids ran out of water faster than adults and cried with less restraint to begin with so hydration was doubly important.

There's a case of water bottles under one of the seats and Cassie tugs it out. The case is about half-empty but there are at least five bottles in there and she extracts one and picks her way up to the front of the jet, temporarily ignoring Tony's warnings about breaking the sound barrier. Her dad is the god of music. The sound barrier might as well be where she lives.

Well not actually.

You can't live in the sound barrier as it has no physical location.

Cassie has clearly had way too long a day already to continue this line of thinking.

What time is it again?

She shakes that off and kneels down next to Katya's chair so that she's lower down than the girl and offers out the water bottle. "Drink up _o mikros mou xaderfos._ Crying is tiring stuff. You'll feel better if you aren't dehydrated."

Katya unwinds one hand from where she has it wound around her knees and takes the water bottle she's offering. Her fingers are long and nimble the way that Leo's are and Cassie thinks they'll be wonderful for building delicate things. They'd be good for playing the piano too if she ever wanted to learn. She swears to herself right then and there that if Katya ever wants to learn, Cassie will carve out the time to teach her, no matter what.

"Thank you," she says quietly. Cassie gives her an encouraging smile and reaches out to pat her shoulder before straightening up again. She's about to turn away and make her way to the open seat beside Steve to strap herself in when Katya catches at her hand, making her pause. "Are you really my cousin?" she asks plainly.

This straightforwardness is one of the reasons that Cassie likes kids. They have huge imaginations but a limited capacity or inclination for lying convincingly. They don't ever try to come at things sideways. If they have questions, they ask them straight out. Also, the fact that Katya knows to ask the question means that she has one more piece of information about her background. She had called Katya 'little cousin' in Greek, not Latin or English and she had still understood.

Cassie arranges her face in to the gentlest expression she can manage and takes Katy's free hand in hers, squeezing very softly. "I think so Kiddo," she says. Kids are honest with her so Cassie always figures the least she can do is be basically honest with them back. Sometimes with details omitted to be sure, but generally honest none the less. "We can talk about it later, okay? Try to stay awake while we fly so that you can sleep when you land." She gestures out the front windows. "This isn't a view you get very often."

Katya lets her hand go with a shy nod and takes a sip from her water bottle before turning back to the window. Tony catches her eye on a glance over his shoulder and nods his thanks before turning his attention back to the control panels.

Cassie gets the sense that, excited and determinedly willing though he is to give Katya some kind of family and normal life, there's a frail large piece of him freaking out. She can understand that. Parents who have their kids the traditional way got the benefit of an average nine month gestational period to get ready no matter how panicky or unprepared they felt. Parents who decided to adopt normally had an extensive paperwork and vetting process to go through. Either way gave you a little bit of prep time.

Tony and Pepper would not be getting that here. She's got faith that they'll work it out because she knows them. That knowledge doesn't change the fact that she's seriously considering the necessity and hang ups inherent to hiring a team psychologist.

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

Right.

The day Anthony Edward Stark voluntarily spent a minute in therapy will be the day the world spins backwards and pigs fly through the sky.

Again.

A sigh breaks out through her lips. You know that your life and personal history is officially too weird to be lived or recorded when you can actively disprove common idioms and figures of speech with a simple anecdote. She's pretty sure the world won't ever actually spin backwards though. Not unless the entirety of her extended family really decides to fuck with her and her friends. Which, she must admit, is an eventual possibility they're all going to have to live with.

She picks her way back through the jet to the empty seat next to Steve which she collapses in to with very little grace. It takes a lot of effort to not give in to the childish impulse to kick off her shoes. She compromises with herself by curling her legs up in the seat next to her and tugging at Steve's arm so that she can tuck herself in to his side. Steve complies easily and merely shifts a bit further over in his own seat so she has space to lie down with her head on his lap instead of his chest.

Steve's fingers tap a little distractedly along her arm and Cassie realizes he's still probably feeling wound up and doesn't have anywhere to funnel his energy or anything to do with his hands. She reaches up with her right hand and calmly pulls out her hair tie, releasing the strands from the sloppy ponytail she'd twisted it in to that morning. Twisting her neck a bit shows her that Steve is giving her a smile that's half grateful and half rueful and lets his fingers drop to her hair, picking out tangles and likely taking a moment to settle his own jangled nerves.

She's started to figure out that messing with her hair is something like a zen process for Steve. He likes things with a method to them and an end goal in mind, and fiddling with her hair lets him have that and gives him something to focus on that also lets part of his mind switch off and unwind. For her part, Cassie just likes the feeling.

She'd contemplated getting a haircut back when she had first met Steve. Then SHIELD had fallen, she'd graduated and moved, then taken up residence in the Tower and somewhere in all of that scheduling it had just gotten pushed to the back of her mind. Now she thinks maybe she'll just let it keep growing until it gets obnoxious. If Steve keeps up his de-tangling habit that could take a while.

A contented hum vibrates in her throat and Cassie shifts a little to settle in. Hopefully she'll be able to nap now and catch up on some of the sleep she missed by waking up so early. The voices of her friends form a lovely pattering din in the background and it's the best kind of lullaby.

Meg's voice is the top end of the range, chiming in with the soprano range that hasn't adjusted a bit since she was thirteen. Reyna's familiar alto rhythm is interspersed periodically with Bucky's more baritone range. Wanda and Pietro are new voices and speak rarely, but they help make the sound fuller and their accents lilt and caress their words in a lovely way. Steve doesn't speak, but the sweep of his breath and the steady beat of his heart are the best base rhythms of all.

There is a lovely floaty state between being awake and being asleep and Cassie is rather enjoying languishing in it for the time being. Everything is wonderfully fuzzy and soft focused and if it weren't for the cramps she will surely develop from sleeping curled up like this everything would be about as perfect as it can possibly be under the circumstances. She's balancing on the diamond edge between waking up and passing out and is looking forwards to tipping in the direction of unconsciousness.

Unfortunately, Steve's hyper metabolism tips her the other direction to wakefulness when his stomach grumbles. "Sorry," he murmurs as Cassie straightens up from her spot and stretches luxuriously. Several of her joints pop, but this time it's more pleasant than painful so she twists a little further to extend the stretch.

"It's okay," she mumbles around a yawn. "Really. If I sleep now I'll never sleep later and then the jet lag will murder me." Though this does raise the question of if they've got any extra food on board for Steve or if he's just going to have to deal with being hungry until they land. He's not one to complain, but it definitely won't be fun for him in the mean time. "Anybody got any food? I've got no idea what time it is given all the time-zone crossing we're doing but clearly we missed lunch back before we left the carrier."

The question gives an opening for Meg to shine and she takes full advantage of it by whipping a frankly enormous tupperware container of sandwiches from seemingly nowhere. "It's not a full mean I know," she says as she hands them around. Those present with overactive metabolisms each get two. "But it should work as a stop-gap measure until we can get home."

A broad grin spreads across Pietro Maximoff's face as he swallows half of his sandwich in three bites. "You are a goddess and I worship you," he tells Meg with a tone of complete and utter sincerity.

Meg grins. "I expect that fan base to grow when you all realize that I managed to collect all of your assorted personal possessions and store them under your seats."

Bucky actually leans down to check and makes a small impressed face when he confirms that a small beat up duffle bag is in fact present. "Your shield is down here too," he tells Steve. Then he turns to Meg and points as imperiously as a person can while still holding a sandwich. "I like you."

"I'm hiring her," Tony calls from the pilot seat. "That wasn't a joke. Pepper is putting together an employee package."

Meg also pulls out a small lighter made of imperial gold and celestial bronze. "I've also got this," she flicks the lighter which produces a tiny, smokeless, flame and Cassie suddenly realizes that it's a portable, self-contained ceremonial flame. "Demigods, toss in your offerings. You're all alive so weather or not your parents actually kicked in any help with that you should probably chuck something in."

Reyna groans and Cassie rolls her eyes but sets an example by dropping some of her meal in to the fire. It vanishes in a flash and Cassie does a quick prayer of thanks to her father and grandfather. Reyna tosses in a bit of bread and goes back to her food. Steve hands Cassie a piece of his own meal and she accepts with a grateful smile and gives him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Now that's love," Bucky comments.

"Is something satanic happening in the back of my plane?" Tony calls back.

The question and the tone it's asked in prompts a three part synchronized eye roll from Cassie, Reyna, and Meg. "If this is anything it's pagan not satanic," Reyna points out. "Besides, you really don't wan to see what might happen if we forget to make a nice ritual sacrifice after a fight like that. Your dad might have been difficult but our parents are literally godly levels of difficult. The gods of Greek and Rome are remarkably petty for celestial beings."

A thunder clap rings out audibly and the whole jet jolts with turbulence. "Oh for the love of-" Cassie gets up and walks to the end of the jet with one hand braced on the wall and opens the cargo door about one sixteenth of the way. "We didn't mean petty!" she calls out over the wind. "We meant incredibly deserving of thanks, gifts, and praise! Completely justified! Not petty at all! Here, have an offering!" she tosses the rest of her sandwich out in to the night and a fork of lightning spears through it before it vanishes.

The shaking stops and the jet settles back in to a steady flight pattern. "Nice talking to you!" Meg calls out from behind Cassie. There's a low rumble of thunder and Cassie would be lying if she said it didn't sound vaguely self-satisfied.

She presses the button to shut the door and makes her way back to her seat. Steve gives her a look that gets stuck between pity and understanding and rubs her back as she sits. He offers her the last of his sandwich but Cassie shakes her head and gestures for him to eat it himself. Her out of whack sleep cycle is making her feel a little bit queasy anyway and if Steve doesn't eat his blood sugar will definitely dip and he'll get grouchy in a completely not funny or vaguely adorable way.

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are both staring from her to Reyna, to Meg, and back again. Bucky is calmly finishing his sandwich and Steve just rubs her back a bit as she sits. Both of them have seen processes similar to this one before. For the twins, this is all new.

"Do you have to do this at every meal?" Wanda asks with wide eyes.

Cassie shakes her head. "Nah. The camp in Long Island does a ceremonial thing at dinner time where everyone puts something in. Rome uses an augur. Individually we really only make offerings after a major event. A big battle, or fight. Otherwise it's pretty much live and let be. We try not to catch their attention most of the time. We avoid names, keep references oblique, that kind of thing."

Wanda must have caught enough of the surface thoughts in the minds of the assembled demigods to fill in the gaps of what she means and also must have told Pietro because neither twin asks them to explain their parents or about the gods. She wouldn't be surprised if borrowing other people's thoughts and perceptions lets Wanda see through the Mist. Maybe she's got some kind of mental trick that makes it possible for her brother to see as well.

"We were never very religious as children," Pietro mutters around his second sandwich. "I think that our grandparents were Jewish. Mama and Papa were more lax," he swallows his last bite and goes to wipe his fingers on his jeans but stops when Meg holds out a napkin. He shrugs and takes it. "From what I remember of the stories, that god is also wrathful and gift oriented."

Bucky puts down the water bottle he's just finished chugging. "That actually brings up something I've been wondering about." He gestures between himself and Steve. "We got raised Catholic. Everything that's happened in between has got us pretty lapsed on that, but what do kids like you guys do if they're already religious when they find out about all this? Do they ditch it all and convert to Greek Orthodox?"

It's an interesting question and one Cassie's wondered about more than once. Her mom had been a demigod too so she'd grown up with her knowledge of the prevailing forces in control of the universe already established even before the first monsters had shown up. She knows it's not like that for everyone, but most demigods ended up at one camp or the other before other religious ideals took root.

She's still thinking about it when Reyna answers the question. "Not really. Most kids find out about all this when they're about thirteen which is generally before most people choose to be deeply invested in a religion. When it does happen," she shrugs one shoulder. "Some religions allow for more flexible thinking than others. Annabeth's cousin Magnus has a friend named Samirah. She's Muslim, a daughter of Loki, and one of Odin's Valkyrie. She prays in the direction of Mecca five times a day and considers each of the Norse gods a different aspect of the same divine being, Allah. There's ways to believe in a single divine power and live this life. You just have to let your beliefs get more complex if you're going to do it."

Steve makes a sound like he's chocking and Cassie reaches around to pound him on the back and runs a quick medical check to make sure his airways aren't actually being blocked. When he has his breath back, he manages to splutter out words. "Loki has a daughter?"

"Yup," Cassie confirms. "Two of them. Well, some days. Alex is gender fluid some some days Loki has a daughter and a son instead, and if you want to get technical Loki is Alex's mom not dad so..." The look on Steve's face says very clearly that the complex information dump isn't making him any less confused. She stops with the nitty-gritty and returns to the most critical points. "Yes Loki has kids hanging out in Boston. They're both really nice and they've got some cool shape changing abilities, a bit like Frank's, but more extensive." She rubs his back gently. "Don't worry about it. We don't see them very much. Our issues don't cross over very often. It's like, a really separated venn diagram." She tries to illustrate with her hands but isn't sure how well she's doing. "Two distinct circles. Practically."

He just blinks and shakes his head. "Okay. I'll need some time to process that, but okay."

Now Pietro is frowning. "The Norse gods... They are in Boston?"

Mag takes responsibility for that question as she produces a package of Oreos from.. somewhere, and begins passing them around. "Gods move around with their centers of power," she says. "Mostly, that means they move with Western civilization. You can track it if you look at historical architecture and power symbols. Egypt, Greece, Rome, London, and the United States." She waves a hand nonchalantly. "Chiron has an orientation film for newbies at camp that explains everything, but the percentage of people who pay attention to that's pretty low."

"So true," Cassie murmurs. "I always thought they'd have better luck with making that stick if they showed it to new kids a little later post-epic trauma and inevitable freak out.'

"The Legion skips the film," Reyna comments. "Somehow, no one's confused when they show up."

"To be fair," Cassie comments. "You guys drop off new campers with a pack of ancient mythological wolves and leave them there for a month hoping for the best. Makes adapt or die pretty literal. I'm guessing the questions are pretty dried up in emotional exhaustion by the time they hit the California state line."

Reyna makes a face but concedes the point.

Meg skips the by-play and goes back to answering Pietro's question. "Anyway, the gods move to wherever the center of power is strongest. Right now, that means the United States. The Greek gods were always more in the East, so now they hang around in New York, and well, Canada, and Denver. Rome was more Western so those gods chill in California. The Norse gods like Boston, generally chilly, near the ocean, lots of boat access. The Egyptian gods have a different set up."

She looks between Cassie and Reyna to pick up the narrative and Cassie fills in the blanks. She's actually met Sadie and Carter Kane before which neither of the others have, so in lieu of Annabeth or Percy she's probably the most qualified to answer. "The Egyptain gods don't have demigod children," she explains. "They have descendants of ancient pharaohs who can channel their power. Those descendants have power centers all over the world with a central hub they report back to. Like, diplomats, with words of power and combat avatars, and Cheese Magic."

A humming noise comes from Reyna. "I never could figure out where that bit came from. Water and Fire I got. Destruction and god avatars made some sense. Combat magic, sign me up. Even the magic attack penguins I could kind of get behind, but cheese? Not so much."

"Apparently it's a fifth element," Cassie explains. "Not Earth, Air, Water, or Fire. Separate categorical substance."

Meg tips her head. "Now that makes sense. I never have been able to figure out the actual contents of cheese whiz."

Most of the rest of the passengers on the jet still look confused and maybe a little bit nauseous which Reyna much realize too because she intervenes. "We hardly ever see any of them," she says in a voice that might be reassuring. "Cultural exchanges are a lovely idea in theory, but in practice, mixing the different kinds of power is a Bad Idea with capital letters. It's only been done once in the last two millennia. The Greek and Roman gods can only spend time in proximity because the gods are virtually the same with different aspects and slightly altered personalities. Even getting us together on good terms took three thousand years. And the American Civil War."

"Reyns," Cassie says. "Maybe ix-nay on the ivil-cay ar-way when we're trying to seem less crazy and be more reassuring about lack of conflict and the structure of our multi-cultural lives."

Wanda frowns. "I did not think that that was how Pig Latin worked."

"It's not," Reyna agrees. "And both of us speak actual Latin anyway so there's really no point using the Pig version."

Cassie throws up her hands. "I give up. My point is, we don't see much of each other and we keep life separate. We keep on good terms and ask each other for help if it's required. Otherwise, we happily go on with life and a policy of salutary neglect. We didn't even know other groups of gods existed until about three years before the Battle of New York." She looks Steve straight in the eye. "This is not something you need to worry about."

He stares back at her, considering, and Cassie can practically see him weighing up her words with all of the new information he's gotten in the last twenty minutes or so. She can also see that no matter what he says, he's not going to not worry about her. The best she'll be able to hope for here is a lack of active anxiety on her behalf and Steve and Bucky managing to avoid conspiring their combined instincts for the protection of others in a misguided and ultimately doomed attempt to keep her, Reyna, and probably now Meg safe.

Still, Steve nods. "Promise you'll tell me if that changes?"

Cassie grins and leans up to kiss him. "Cross my heart."

"Hope you've been taking notes up there Stark," Bucky calls up to Tony. "This stuff is probably about to start mattering to you."

"Don't need to," the man chirps with characteristic arrogance. "Perfect memory. Everything's locked away for all eternity. Plus, there's nothing the internet can't tell you with the right search phrases."

That gets a round of shouted protests in three part harmony from the demigods present. The rest of the flight is spent explaining to Tony that under no circumstances should anything about the gods, monsters, and myths that demigods deal with be entered in to a search engine within a half-mile radius of them. Steve resolves the matter by telling Tony that he'll lend him the books he used to brush up on Greek mythology when Cassie had first told him the truth.

Tony accepts, but she's pretty sure she can hear him muttering about designing an internalized safe search protocol. Maybe she'll put him in touch with Jake Mason as well as Leo. They'd worked together to make her phone and computer safe for demigod use.

They land at the tower to find Pepper waiting just inside the roof access door in pair of immaculate pajamas. The fact that Pepper Potts looks perfectly put together even in sleep isn't even surprising anymore. She does look strained though as she steps up to meet Tony and meet Katya, her perspective adopted daughter for the very first time.

Katya has actually managed to fall asleep so Tony carries her off of the plane in the rough cradle of his arms. "Hey," she greets Tony, leaning up to kiss him first in greeting, examining the cuts on his face and doing a small visual scan for further damage. Then she looks down at Katya. "This is Katy?" she brushes a bit of hair out of the girl's face and she nuzzles in to the touch and Tony's chest, shifting in her sleep.

Cassie can actually see Pepper's entire face soften. Something tells her these next few months will be the beginning of something permanent more than it will be some trial run. "I've got a room set up for her next to ours," she tells Tony. "It's mostly undecorated. I figured she might want to pick things out on her own after she'd been here for a little while."

"That's a good idea," Cassie confirms from where she's leaving the Jetway. "Letting her make her own space," she clarifies. "It'll make her room really feel like it's hers. That'll be important."

Pepper nods at her and then throws a quick glance at the twins over Cassie's shoulder. "FRIDAY has your room information," she tells them. "You as well Ms. McCaffrey. She'll guide you to the right place. We can all have breakfast together later to meet each other in a more official capacity. I'd imagine sleeping is a higher priority at the moment."

"Thank you," Wanda says. Cassie notices she's shrunk in to herself a little in shyness, obviously worried about what Pepper might think of her and her brother after their nearly last minute side switch. She reaches up and grips her brother's sleeve. "Come along brother."

Pietro sticks his tongue out in the gentle, teasing way that siblings had with each other. "I am still twelve minutes older than you."

"You died," Wanda returns fiercely. "Now you are only nine minutes older than I am. Besides, you were shot. Clearly I am the twin with the better judgement."

Well, technically Pietro had only been dead for one minute and thirty-seven seconds. However, now doesn't seem like the time to bring that up. Instead she watches Wanda leave with her brother dragged along behind her. Pietro pauses next to Meg and offers his arm in a show of old-world style gallantry. "My Lady. Shall we drag you along as well?"

Meg stops a moment to shoulder a bag that must hold her supplies. Cassie supposes that must be where she's been getting the food from. "That is how I get involved in most things." She loops her arm in to his and gestures to Wanda. "Drag on."

The three of them leave looking like the strangest ever participants in a very tired five-legged race.

Tony and Pepper have made their way back inside already, heads inclined in a quiet conference over the international paperwork they're going to have to do. There seems to be some debate over which one of the many lawyers they keep on retainer might be best to handle the situation with the least amount of stress or pressure on Katya. Tony is advocating the idea that they should just find the best adoption lawyer in the country and hire them for the purchase. Cassie thinks he might get his way on this one.

Steve has his shield braced on one arm and opens his other so Cassie can lean in to his side as they stagger through the doors down in to the main floors of the Tower behind the others. Tony, Pepper, Meg, Wanda, and Pietro have all vanished already but Bucky and Reyna are holding the elevator for them. The four of them ride up to their floor together in an understanding mutual silence and only part ways at the end of the hallway both of their apartments are on.

"I think we should take the day off tomorrow," Steve says just before they open their doors.

Reyna's too busy yawning to answer but she gestures at Bucky who nods. "I think that means we're on board."

Steve looks at her next and Cassie nods as well. She feels the kind of fatigued tiredness that settles in your bones and only really lifts after a few days of generally low key down time. "I can always get on board for a well deserved mental health day. We've definitely earned this one."

There's a round of mutual agreeing noises and Bucky claps Steve on the shoulder. "See you two in the morning. Or maybe tomorrow afternoon."

They vanish in to their own apartments and as soon as the door shuts behind them Cassie kicks off her shoes, drops her bag of medical gear, and peals off her jacket on the way to their bedroom. She collapses face first on to the mattress with the rest of her clothes still on. "Mmmm. Finally. Wake me up in fourteen hours."

Steve lets out a puff of laughter and Cassie can hear him moving around near the window before there's a swish of the blinds opening and she feels the comforting warmth of sunshine fall across her skin. She makes a contented sound and gives a cat-like stretch without opening her eyes. Then she hears and feels the muffled thump of Steve collapsing next to her. "Consider it an order," he mumbles.

Cassie feels herself being shifted over and up and knows that Steve must be tucking them both under the covers. Her boyfriend is a human furnace but that doesn't stop him from being pathologically incapable of sleeping without a blanket. Maybe it's a habit from the army but Cassie hasn't ever asked.

He nuzzles his face in to the back of her neck and Cassie feels the heaviness of his exhale. "You know how you said you were in favor of a mental health day?"

"Uh huh," Cassie says, mind already fuzzing over with sleep. "What about it?"

A kiss lands against the back corner of her jaw. "What would you say about making that a little bit longer?"

That deserves eye contact if it's going to be the conversation they're having so Cassie rolls over to look up in to his face and forces her eyes open. "You mean like a vacation? Have you ever taken one of those before?"

Steve shakes his head. "We could go anywhere," he offers, sounding a bit wistful. "I've been to every continent besides Antartica and never been there without being on mission or fighting a war. I've been to London and Paris but never when they weren't being bombed. I'd like to go somewhere, and actually see it."

Slowly, Cassie reaches up and pulls him down to give him a kiss. First on the lips, then on his forehead. "Somewhere sunny," she tells him. "Not Greece, Egypt, Norway, or Italy because that's ancient land and not somewhere I'm supposed to go. Otherwise, you can surprise me."

A grin as bright as any ray of sunshine Cassie's ever seen spreads across Steve's face as he realizes what she's saying. He leans down and flutters feather light kisses all across her face, making Cassie giggle. "I'll make a plan," he tells her. "It'll be great I promise."

Cassie catches his face and kisses him again, sliding her fingers through his hair and along the nape of his neck. The kiss is forced to stay fairly shallow because Steve hasn't stopped grinning and she can feel her own mouth breaking in to a smile as well. She breaks away to breath and caresses his temple, still smiling.

"I believe you," she whispers. She doesn't have to. There's no one else around. But this seems like the kind of moment where whispering is the right way to go. A private, quiet moment after days on end surrounded by their own fear and the tensions and worries of others. "My boyfriend loves me, and he makes good plans. In fact, he should plan lots of things. When he doesn't make plans he makes bad choices and gets frozen for seventy years. Boyfriend plans are definitely good."

The smile Steve gives her isn't the same grin because it's sweeter than that, more loving. "You told me not to worry about gods and you being safe," he says gently. "You don't need to worry about me." He turns his face and kisses her palm. "You and me," he murmurs. "That's the most important plan I've got."

Cassie grins up at him. She stretches one hand out in to the sunshine falling through the window and spreads her fingers, making the light bounce, shine, and diffuse throughout the space until the whole room is filled with the rich golden light of the late afternoon outside. Steve sighs in joy as the warmth permeates his skin and Cassie actually sees him relax as the light, the light she's creating, seeps through him.

"That," she says softly. "Is the best plan you could possibly have."

 **A/N: Awwwww. Aren't they cute? Anyway, that ties up everything from AoU. I'm debating where to have them go for vacation, but I think you can all agree with me that they definitely deserve one. I'm thinking of how to work Meg in to the story, but I do think she's going to be around for a bit. Unless someone has a really negative opinion about it? If someone does I'm open to other ideas. On that subject, what did you guys think? I'm working on ways to knit the group together as closely as possible to make it work for the direction I'm thinking of adapting Civil War in to. Also, thanks to everyone who gave me some advice on anxiety and how to help my sister. It's something she's struggled with for years and I got some really great information and advice from you guys. Anyway, review for me! Review! Review! xoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer: Nope. I own literally absolutely nothing when it comes to what I've written. I profit not at all. In fact, given that I could** **theoretically be doing something with this time that could earn me money, I'm almost paying to write this. And I still don't own anything anyone can even remotely recognize.**

They don't leave first thing in the morning or anything like that. Taking a vacation requires a certain amount of time to plan even for one of the greatest living tacticians in modern military history. However, the fairly unlimited budget they're working with plus the fact that every media/legal connection they have is telling them to lay low and not be too obviously super hero-ish helps.

Stark decides to use the fallout time to establish a new Avengers base in upstate New York with Nick Fury. Apparently, it takes him exactly three days of parenthood to decide that Katya deserves a yard and space to make things and blow them up without repercussion. Maria Hill, Barton, and Natasha agree to stick around to help out and keep some of Stark's crazy in check. Rhodes comes out to assist and provide normalized parenting advice.

Normally the job of Stark management would have fallen to Pepper, but between being a new parent, being CEO, and handling public opinion fallout from Sokovia she's a little busy. Everyone has their multitasking limits, and taking time to be an actual presence in Katya's life will probably push hers. The fact that she's trying bolsters Cassie's faith that this arrangement will work out.

She and Steve discuss briefly and then offer to Bucky and Reyna that they could come with them for a sort of joint relaxation period. Both of their friends end up begging off. In their defense, both of their schedules are loaded to a fairly absurd level.

Reyna is managing a lot of the press coordination to handle media fall out from Ultron so that Pepper doesn't have to. She says she gains strength from the tears of the media as she thwarts them in their attempts to spin a salacious story. It's possible Bucky has never looked at her with more adoring eyes when he hears that.

For his part, Bucky volunteers to stay behind and keep Reyna company and take on some of the jobs Steve would have handled with regards to the military training at the new headquarters. Given that the man is technically a Sergeant, and may or may not have assisted in the devising of the Black Widow program, it's a job he's decidedly qualified for. The "may or may not" is a result of quite a bit of psychological torment inflicted on the only people in a position to know.

Meg wanders around the Tower for a few days while people try to figure out what her job will actually be. Eventually Stark just throws up his hands and says "Fuck it. Darcy Bennet is employed as 'Official Adult Babysitter for Science'. What title do you even want?"

That's how Meg ends up with shiny new business cards labeling her 'Vegetation & Arboreal Coordinator' with a fine print subtitle saying (professional provider of snacks to important people). It's a mouthful of a title, but it makes Meg happy and amuses Tony so it sticks. The girl is given an unfeasibly large budget, a custom designed kitchen in her new apartment in the building, and quite a bit of property in the upstate facility to turn in to greenhouses.

Pietro runs her up to survey the sight in person and manages the trip in about the time it would take a normal person to get out to Queens in a car. He seems to be settling in fine though FRIDAY has had to figure out alternative running paths for him away from populous areas so that he won't distract cars as he zips past. Steve recommends a few of the paths he likes and Sam seems to find it endlessly hilarious that Pietro takes to zipping past him making Road Runner noises. Apparently, he and Wanda used to watch American cartoons when they were very young children.

Wanda has a harder time in the city than her brother does. Apparently, so many people all living close together is a little overwhelming for a telepath. Too many minds all thinking together is something the girl likens to standing in a crowded room where everyone is talking at once when Cassie asks.

Cassie explains Wanda's problem to Tony and the man doesn't even blink before arranging to give her and Pietro apartments on the floor above the other team members. The twins have apartments next to each other and Wanda's is directly above the apartment kept empty for Rhodes when he's visiting. It lowers Wanda's stress level to have fewer people thinking in to her head and confides to Cassie that though she finds the minds of both Clint and Bucky relatively quiet, and Reyna and Pepper reassuringly organized, all of those people are in committed relationships and there are certain things she really doesn't want to hear.

The battle in Sokovia has had the effect of getting the entire team to accept the twins quickly. They fold in around the Maximoffs and enmesh them. They each do it on their own time, but they all end up in the same place eventually.

Tony, Pepper, Bucky, Clint, and Natasha all seem to be of the opinion that they've each been given enough second chances by the world to pass one along to the twins. Pepper works out where they'll live and how to introduce them to the public as new team members which Reyna assists with. Tony shows up two days after they move in to ask what kind of gear they need. Then he spends the next week or so popping up with test model shoes for Pietro to try out. Apparently, the guy has a problem with burning through the soles due to friction.

Rhodes does some long distance grumbling but handles getting the twins work visas and Cassie suspects a lot of the credit for keeping the government off their backs about weaponizing their powers goes to him. Sam brushes off his therapist training and lends a good ear to the both of them to work through the changes in trauma they're dealing with. Cassie makes a not to see if Bucky's therapist will clear some time to meet with Wanda, and maybe Katya though it's possible she'll need a child psychologist and not an adult one .

Natasha and Bucky teach themselves Sokovian as a subtle show of solidarity and Nat helps handle introducing the twins to American shopping. Clint just shows up to sit silently with Wanda when she gets stressed out. Passive as that is, Cassie wonders if it might be the most helpful thing the team does.

Cassie does their entrance medial exams and starts working on a tweaked formula for her protein bars that will up the calorie count enough for Pietro. Wanda is now, and apparently has always been, a little bit more physically delicate. Cassie writes out a list of supplements for her to start taking including iron and calcium. She also starts working on figuring out a medication she'll be able to take for migraines.

Both twins process medications in ways different from any other human being Cassie's ever met. Figuring out the right way to dose them will probably take time and an unfortunate, though unavoidable, period of trial and error. At this point, Cassie's officially blocked out the word "experimenting" from her vocabulary. There are a lot of people in the building who find the meaning attached to it more than a little bit triggering.

Wanda likes Jolly Ranchers.

Pietro attaches to Twix bars.

On the second Thursday after Sokovia Steve shows up in her office at about two in the afternoon. "Hey," he greets, leaning over to kiss her. Cassie's sitting at her desk working at her computer. Recovering the data Ultron dumped is taking some time and Tony has promised her a separate server with extra encryption when everything's uploaded.

But this is still taking forever.

Anyway, her position makes the angle of the kiss kind of awkward, but her boyfriend is an excellent kisser and this is an awesome surprise so she feels pretty compelled to work around it. They both let the kiss carry for a little longer than they probably should but it wipes the frustration and repetition her day as contained out of her head for the time being. Steve makes a regretful noise as he pulls back and straightens up.

"Well hello to you too," Cassie says with a grin. "Is this going to be a new standard greeting policy? Because I have to tell you that if it is, I really wouldn't mind."

He smiles back and manages to look more relaxed than she's seen him be in quite a while. Barton has managed to never get his face on camera, virtually nobody knows Banner is the Hulk, Sam and Rhodes are technically known but fairly low profile, and Thor is ostentatious but generally off world. Bucky has a general appearance and personal aura that keeps people and the press off his back.

The press is newly interested in who Cassie and Reyna are, but as predicted are having trouble finding anything on them. Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter are damn good at keeping the information on their campers under a full seal blackout. If the press wants to report anything on them it'll all be incredibly bland and general and mostly from after they'd turned eighteen.

After the catastrophe with Hammer Industries and pretty much any of Stark's dealings with the press, government, and general public, no one particularly wants to talk to Pepper or Tony about what's gone on. They're stuck talking with Tony since Ultron was actually invented by him, but no one is particularly happy about it. Nat makes the rounds with the Senate and is more than capable of gaming government officials, but her ability and willingness to play the game seems to make politicians uncomfortable.

What all of this boils down to is that Steve has had to spend a lot of time back down in Washington D.C handling members of the government whom he'd really rather not talk to. One of Steve's great personal and professional frustrations is that much of the government seems to think that his past service and general legend designates him as their personal dancing monkey. That's not a term Cassie would generally use, but it's one she's heard him say enough times to crib it directly from his frustrated rants.

Normally she knows Steve would tell them to shove it and refuse to play the game, but they don't have the latitude for one of the few team members the government is willing to even pretend to be on good communicative terms with to publicly piss anybody off. He's had to do a lot of professional tongue biting lately and it's definitely wearing on him. Given his own choice, she's pretty sure the only political actions Steve would take would be much more socialist and direct than conservatives would ever be willing to believe.

Some day, Cassie promises herself, she's going to bring him along to some form of human rights protest and make sure Reyna has coordinated the press to get some very nice public pictures. The New York pride parade is in June and she knows that Will is going which means he'll probably manage to drag Nico along. By extension, a large party of demigods will probably show up too.

Maybe she'll float the idea of going with Steve while they're on their mystery vacation. It's something she thinks he might be interested in going to as she's worked out that these days, Steve really just likes to talk to people about what they care about. It's how he makes his decisions on issues. Maybe Bucky and Reyna will come with them and they'll make a day of it.

An equal pay rally might also be fun to go to. Steve had been raised by a single mother during the Great Depression and the fact that she had been paid approximately half what men did had always made him angry. The fact that those circumstances haven't changed so very much over the last seventy years is something that makes him quietly furious.

Cassie bets she can sell him on both. His rebellious side will almost definitely approve of the push it would give certain members of government towards apoplexy. Come to think of it, they're probably going to want to have Tony commit some light felony to watch their reactions on camera. Surely it won't be the worst thing Stark's ever done. The man just unleashed a genocidal robot on the world for crying out loud.

"I think I can make myself more okay with public displays of affection as greetings in the future," he says.

She spins her office chair to face him more easily and Steve rests one hand on the chair back and the other on the edge of her desk. Since it's benefiting both of their moods, Cassie leans up to kiss him again, getting a good grip on the collar of his shirt to pull them closer together. He makes a noise in the back of his throat when he realizes that he'll have to shift his weight to touch her and moves the hand on the back of her chair to caress her jaw.

It's completely wonderful and completely not something either of them would do in any workplace run by someone they didn't both know personally. FRIDAY, like JARVIS before her, has a privacy setting. And it's one Cassie's definitely thinking about engaging when Steve makes a mumbled sound and pulls back, going so far as to actually take a half-step backwards.

Cassie let's herself pout at him dramatically. "Oh. You actually came to talk about things didn't you?"

He nods but his smile spreads an increment wider. "Unfortunately yes," he confirms. "But I think you'll like the subject. Have you got a minute? Or do you have an appointment you're waiting on?"

She tips her head and considers, mentally running what she remembers of her daily schedule through her head. As far as se knows she's in the clear but it can't hurt to check. She leans back to address the ceiling. "FRIDAY, am I forgetting anybody?"

"You have no appointments until three PM this afternoon. Then I believe Ms. McCaffrey will be arriving for her introductory physical. Would you like me to issue a reminder fifteen minutes prior?"

Cassie nods even though she thinks the AI probably doesn't read that kind of visual cue. "Yes. Thank you FRIDAY." She tips her head back down to look at Steve and gestures at the spare desk chair against the wall. "All yours," she tells him. "Grab a chair. Unless you were thinking about doing this kindergarten style and convening on the floor. Which is fine, but I honestly can't vouch for this floor."

Steve makes a face and reaches for the chair she'd indicated, dragging it across the floor towards her. "There are some things you shouldn't take chances with."

Cassie let's out a mock gasp and brings a hand to her heart. "Dear gods! What has happened!?" He rolls his eyes and Cassie reaches for her phone. "Hold on. I'm going to need you to repeat that so I can record it for Bucky. He'll never believe you actually said it otherwise."

"I say this with all the care and tenderness inherent to being in love with you, respectfully, and from the bottom of my heart, can it."

She laughs and extracts a packet of M&Ms from her desk drawer and offers it to him. "Sorry Honey," she says, perfectly aware that her voice doesn't actually sound that contrite. She spent the package and offers it to him. "Will you forgive me for the price of chocolate goodness?"

Steve shrugs and reaches for the offering. "I'd say the odds are good." He swallows a handful and Cassie pops a few of the candies in to her own mouth. "Do you have any appointments you can't reschedule past a week from Saturday?"

Cassie pauses to swallow. "I generally don't make appointments more than a week in advance for this job," she leans forwards. "Is this for the super secret surprise vacation I absolutely not involved in the planning of?" He grins like a little kid on Christmas and it's all the answer Cassie needs. "So the Saturday after this one until when? I'll have FRIDAY block out my schedule."

"I'll handle it," he says, still grinning and leans up to look at the ceiling the way she just had. "FRIDAY, please take the block of time I originally marked out on my own schedule for tentative vacation and confirm it and copy the dates on Cassie's calendar."

"Of course Captain," FRIDAY's cool, efficient voice says, wafting through the space.

One of her eyebrows quirks. "Really? You're not even going to tell me how long this vacation is going to be? How am I supposed to pack?"

Steve makes an enigmatic expression and eats a second handful of candy. Cassie takes the expression to mean that he is planning to pack for her and any and all of the clothing that ends up on this vacation with them is going to be ridiculously well folded. The itinerary for the trip will also probably be ridiculously detailed.

How did one schedule relaxation?

Apparently, she'll find out a week and a half from now. If anybody can work out a way to regiment a vacation it's probably her boyfriend. He actually finds planning relaxing. There's quite a bit of written and visual documentation of him helping plan the Normandy invasion and apparently he'd been one of the coordinating minds who had thought Market Garden was a bad plan likely to get a lot of people killed.

He gets freedom on their personal planning when he explicitly asks for it.

Cassie throws up her hands in defeat. "Fine, fine, fine. Organize and itinerize as you will."

This time it's his turn to lift an eyebrow at her. "Itinerize?"

She tosses an M&M at him and he's irritatingly coordinated enough to duck his head and catch it in his mouth. "I may have made up a word. I think I'm keeping it. Also expect to hear the phrases 'Capping', 'schedule extremis', 'leadership level twelve', and 'because freedom'. I plan to spend a lot of time with you on a pretty much permanent basis. I need verbs, adjectives, and other language for the things you do and the way you spend time."

Steve's expression changes, softening and becoming more, well, gooey around the edges. It's the kind of look she only ever sees directed at her when they're in private and one of the ways that he tells her he loves her as much as she loves him even when he doesn't say the words explicitly. He rises half way out of his chair and bends over to kiss her again. It's soft and almost heartrendingly sweet and she raises her hands to cover his where they cup her face.

This time when he backs away he lifts one wrist and then the other and kisses each on the skin over her pulse before kissing her forehead and sitting back. "I expect to spend a lot of time with you on a pretty much permanent basis too."

The way he quotes the words back to her so exactly could to an outsider seem like he's making them a joke. Cassie knows better though. He's never shy or hesitant to return the words when she says "I love you" but he normally doesn't say it first. Unless she initiates them, he saves the words because he finds them special, and says them first when he can't help saying them, when he's overwhelmed with the feeling behind them (whenever those moments come which is sometimes random), or when he thinks he needs to say them or she needs to hear them.

But she never doubts how he feels.

There are a million ways to tell someone that you love them.

Steve shows her different ways to do it each and every day.

Cassie grins up at him. "Well good. Balanced expectations are important. Meanwhile, how much of the next week and a half will you be here for? I'll schedule some extra appointments and add some lab hours to get the new round of energy bars finished if you're going to be working long hours too. Otherwise I'll delegate some things to my lab people so my dockets empty before we head out."

"I'm home until Sunday night," he answers. "Then I'll head up to Washington for most of the week and be back on Friday night. I have to go to meetings with at least twelve senators and about five representatives. The list is only going to get longer once I get down there and I..." he trails off a moment and glances at her quickly before glancing away again. His fingers fidget together for a moment like he isn't completely sure how to say what he wants to say next. Evidently he decides on the simplest way forwards because he meets her gaze again and shrugs. "I want to save some time to visit Peggy."

Well that certainly explains some of the awkwardness. Cassie figures no guy in the history of time as ever been entirely comfortable telling their girlfriend that they'd like to plan to go visit their ex, no matter what the time between the last time they'd dated had lasted or contained. In this, he's fairly average, even if the circumstances are convoluted and basically impossible to navigate.

The thing is though, that Steve is honest about what he does. It makes being with him simple in a way she hadn't known was so nice until she experienced it. They don't deliberately avoid talking about his past. His childhood best friend is living with them after all. But they also don't talk about Peggy in particular much and Cassie doesn't ever really mention the people she dated growing up either. She knows he used to visit her when they were living in D.C full time, but he hasn't mentioned going back since.

Clearly he's been thinking about this long enough to be worried about her reaction though. Handling things going forward for the rest of the conversation is going to take a little bit of precision. Cassie aims well with projectiles, hopefully the precision will manage to translate to conversation.

She curls her legs under her in her chair and leans her chin on her hand. "You haven't seen her in a while have you?" she asks lightly.

Steve is watching her carefully like he still isn't convinced that this conversation won't end badly in terms of upsetting her. He shakes his head slowly. "Not since right before SHIELD fell. Her family moved her to a different facility out in Richmond right after it happened and everything was.. busy to say the least."

"Then you should go," Cassie says with a decisive nod. "You've got the time, and I think she'd probably like to hear about SHIELD from you." Now Steve is looking at her with the expression he normally reserves for whatever Stark's newest technology is- wary, a bit impressed, and more than a little confused. Cassie cracks a smile and tips her head. "You pictured this conversation going differently didn't you?"

Steve gives an aborted shrug and rubs at the back of his neck. "Honestly I had no idea what you'd say. Not knowing was driving me crazy."

Cassie reaches out and takes his hand. "Steve, really what I care about here is that you were worried about something and talked to me about it instead of muddling through." She squeezes his fingers. "Peggy Carter is an incredibly important part of your personal history and the only connection to your old life you've got besides Bucky. Of course you should see her when you can."

A grin brakes across Steve's face and he turns their joined hands to kiss her palm. "You are an amazing human being."

She waves her hand in a vague dismissal, blushing for a reason she can't quite name. "A quarter of one anyway. Comes straight from my grandmother. I never met her but I hear she was quite the lady and an excellent sprinter. Mercury certainly thought so anyway."

"You. Are. Incredible," Steve says, emphasizing each word separately and clearly.

Cassie leans over and kisses his cheek. "Thank you. Meanwhile, you should take at least the first half of next Saturday to see Peggy. Then you can take a train back here or I can take a train up to D.C and we can leave together from whichever we decide. You should probably pick though, seeing as I still don't know where we'll be going from there."

He's quiet for a minute before speaking in a sudden rush. "Would you like to meet her? Peggy I mean."

Cassie leans back a little to really study his face. "I'd love to," she says slowly and softly. "But are you sure? I mean, I know she's got Alzheimers. Would I throw her off?"

Steve actually does take a moment to think through what she's said and Cassie's grateful that he's considering things carefully. If the research she's done while trying to help Bucky has taught her anything it's that the brain is a funny thing, especially when it comes down to memory. The last thing she wants to do is damage the mental state of Peggy Carter in any way by being extra confusing by showing up with the woman's former boyfriend.

"I don't think it'll be a problem," Steve says. "She might need me to introduce you more than once, and sometimes she loses track of me in the middle of a conversation and can't remember that I'm not dead. But I never wanted her not to have a life after I was gone, and I think that while she's lucid, she'd like knowing that I've got a life now, and that I'm happy. She's said a few times that I always seem sad. I'd like her to see at least once, that I'm not."

Well alright then. That settles it.

Cassie smiles at him. "Okay. Then I'll finish up all of my work for the week by Friday afternoon and come down to D.C by train Friday night. We can spend most of Saturday visiting Peggy and fl out to wherever it is that we're going on Saturday night. Does that work with our mystery vacation plan?"

Steve nods. "Easily. I'll handle logistics and pack a bag for you that I'll bring down to D.C with me."

The words make Cassie pull a face. She'd been hoping to wheedle hints about their destination out of him by asking things about what she ought to pack. Her expression makes him laugh. Apparently what she's thinking is fairly obvious on her face.

They follow through on the plan they've made because of course they do. Steve has a plan. The plan will be adhered to as far as is possible.

They enjoy the weekend they have together and Steve leaves for Washington D.C early on Monday morning after a long and sleepy kiss goodbye. They talk on the phone around his meetings and Cassie's appointments and lab work. Well, they don't so much have conversations as Cassie prompts Steve along in his ranting as he vents about the sheer idiocy of the people he's being forced to play nice with. She figures it's better politically if he rants to her instead of in public, funny as a public frustration fueled rant might prove to be.

Cassie leaves New York on a train at about five o'clock in the afternoon on Friday with no luggage but the kind of carry on backpack she'd normally take on a flight with her. It's got her laptop, an extra sweater, a nice easy book, all relevant charging cords, and her own toiletries along with clothes for the next two days. Economical packing for trips is a certain skill that descendants of Mercury tended to have a bit of a knack for.

Steve meets her at the station and greets her with a hug so very enthusiastic that her feet completely leave company with the floor and the baseball cap he'd been wearing as an identity shield gets knocked clean off his head. He retrieves it when he puts her down and also gathers up her bag before leading her out in to the humid night air of the street. Once they're out he waves for a cab and manages to catch one in about twelve seconds flat.

The hotel Steve's been in for the week isn't actually too far from the apartment building they had both been living in before the move to New York. It feels almost strange to see the city as a visitor and not as a resident. Maybe she'll take an hour or two and drag Steve out to do something touristy before they leave. She thinks she'd like to see the Smithsonian without a giant gold lion attacking her.

Cassie does most of the talking during dinner which they have out at a truly wonderful Turkish restaurant. As she talks she keeps up a steady vocal pattern and throws in enough detail to be interesting. She also goes farther in to the technical details than she might any other time but Steve seems to be enjoying committing his attention to something other than the political mire he's been embroiled in for the last week. It's as they're talking that Cassie suddenly notices that the questions Steve's asking to prompt her on are highly involved and fairly complex.

"Can I ask something?" she inquires as Steve finishes off another bite of kofte kebab. He's too busy chewing to respond verbally, but makes a gesture for her to continue with his free hand. "Do you learn things differently?" she asks. "Since getting the serum I mean. I'm only asking because I've looked through the original notes on the effects and there's a lot to do with the physical effects, but after the research I've done to try to help Bucky I've noticed that most people seem to forget that the brain is a lump of muscle and tissue. It's a physical thing too."

Steve puts down his fork thoughtfully and wipes his fingers clean. "Nobody's ever actually tested it," he says slowly. "But the answer's yes. I don't really forget things once I know them. My sense of spatial awareness and mapping seems to be pretty much perfect. I learn languages faster." He takes a sip of water and then meets her eyes again. "SHIELD was having me learn Arabic before everything happened. They didn't realize I figured it out within a month."

"And you didn't tell them," Cassie surmises with a grin.

He returns it. "They knew enough about me and what they thought I could do for them. Telling them anything more just seemed... unfair. I thought they deserved to have less than the full picture for once."

"I find that to be entirely sporting and equitable," she says, happy that those kinds of questions can be asked and answered without throwing them out of equilibrium.

They take a pass on dessert at the restaurant and get gelato instead after a brief hike through the streets of the city. Having any kind of seriously Greek relative would make you either a baklava enthusiast or never want to eat it again. Her own personal history has done plenty to turn Cassie's opinion on filo dough towards the dark side. Ice cream wins out every day of the week.

The treat makes Steve's mouth taste like pistachio and chocolate and his tongue is cool but his hands are warm when they finally make their way back to their room.

The following morning Cassie takes her cue on how to dress from Steve's own neatened appearance and fresh shave and puts on the nicer of the two outfits she'd packed. It's a skirt and blouse combo bought out on a shopping trip with Pepper and a pair of flats. Of course it's possible that Peggy Carter won't care in the least what she shows up looking like, but the nicer clothing still feels like the right way to go for what they're doing that day.

Steve wanders out of the bathroom fidgeting with the collar of his button down. Somehow he's missed the fastenings and can't quite seem to get them straight. Cassie briefly flashes back on what he said last night about his spatial reasoning and swallows a smile.

"Come here," she says, not quite blocking all of the amusement in her voice. "I'll do it."

Steve looks a little embarrassed but walks over and drops his hands to let her take over. She flicks all of the buttons out of their fastenings with a series of quick slides and does them back up with brisk efficiency. Fingers trained for surgery and born for music are certainly steady enough to undo and fasten buttons. She gives his chest a light pat. "All set. Are you doing a tie you want help with?"

He raises an eyebrow. "You know how to tie one?"

Cassie braces a hand on his shoulder and gives him a quick kiss. "I've had four biological half-brothers in my life and a certain plethora of clothing incapable male friends. I can do a mean Windsor. Now tell me if I have any cowlicks in odd places and if the answer is 'no' then we can leave."

Steve steps back and leans from side to side to examine the neat bun she's managed to twist her hair in to. Then he cradles her cheek and kisses her again. "Present and correct, but I have to say that that those pins kind of look like they hurt."

They move for the door and Cassie can't help feeling a new spike of nerves. They've been creeping up and pouncing on her at random points all through the week and all week she's been belligerently squashing them down. "Well my grandad is the god of thieves. You'd be amazed at what kind of shit I can get in to and out of with a hairpin."

Steve reaches out and takes her hand as they enter the elevator and the contact settles her nerves. It takes them abut forty minutes by car to reach the facility Peggy's been moved to and Cassie fills the time by pointing out landmarks she recognizes from previous trips through the area. Of course a lot of those trips involved running for her life so the places that actually stood out were a bit haphazard.

Very few young women could pick out a full selection of available safe houses and rest stops within a ten mile radius of D.C. Some of those 'houses' are technically bush forts. They might fail the technical definition of a house. Annabeth would know the right classification but Cassie certainly doesn't.

Speaking of Annabeth, they're not really too far from where she grew up when the car pulls in and stops.

The nurse who greats them in the front reception hall must have been briefed on the fact that Steve was coming. She probably used to work for SHIELD and turned out to be one of their employees who wasn't a secret HYDRA agent. Cassie wonders if this woman is in a file somewhere on her still-trashed server.

"She's having a good morning," the nurse informs them. "She watched some CNN and had some very choice words about the goings on up on Capital Hill. I'd say that's a very positive sign."

After that she gives them directions to Peggy's room and clears out of the way.

The building they're in seems to be a converted mansion and it's remarkably empty. Cassie pokes Steve once in the ribs to get him to look down at her. "How did this place get set up?"

She asks the question because this building is huge and beautifully maintained. It's also not at all depressing and full of trained staff and top of the line medical equipment. This takes a hell of a lot of money and coordination.

"Howard Stark," Steve answers. "He uh- He and Peggy were friends after my plane went down. He left her the house and some money in his will. Apparently this house was a summer residence. Fury updated it as a secure space off the books when Peggy started getting sick."

Cassie nods because it makes sense. Most of the money in her world seems to come from someone with the last name Stark, and Fury has his fingers in everything. Why not this too?

They reach the door they've been told to go to and Cassie stands back a bit as Steve knocks. No matter how good a morning Peggy Carer might be having she should still see the person she knows before she sees a stranger. It's also possible she'll lose lucidity at any moment, though this early in the day that's substantially less likely. The sundowning phenomenon was not a lie.

The door flies open to reveal an elderly woman dressed in a neat blue house dress with long gray hair wound up in to an elegant bun. She smiles brightly when she sees Steve and the joy in her expression wipes the lines and signs of age from her face. Cassie feels like she can see two images, one the determined young woman who helped to found SHIELD and the other an equally determined woman of seventy.

"Steve," she says in a crisp British accent. "How lovely to see you. An excellent surprise." She steps forwards and reaches up with hands that are still remarkably steady and presses a kiss to Steve's cheek. "I'd been wondering when I would see you again."

Steve shuffles his feet a little and Cassie can tell that an apology for not visiting is hovering on the tip of his tongue. "I should have come sooner," he says. "I meant to. I'm sorry."

Peggy dismisses the apology with a brisk wave of her hand. "You were busy." She turns slightly and fixes her gaze on Cassie. Her eyes are a warm brown color and completely and utterly aware. There's no doubt that Peggy Carter is absolutely formidable while lucid. "And who is this?"

Cassie rightly recognizes her cue and steps forwards, offering a hand. "Cassandra Morgenstern Ma'am," she says. "Everyone calls me Cassie. It's wonderful to meet you."

The hand that takes hers is cool and firm, the skin over the bones papery. "Well," she says after assessing her for a moment. "You've rather a pretty face. One assumes the brain behind it must be functional."

It's not exactly a question but Cassie decides to treat it that way. Bucky never really gave her a shovel talk. If she's getting one now she'll weather it out and she's sure Peggy will perform her portion of the proceedings admirably.

"My instructors at Columbia and Georgetown Medical school certainly seemed to think so," she says evenly. "Though several fully trained psychologists might have something to say to the contrary."

Peggy gives her a small smile and Cassie feels like she might have passed some kind of test. "Ah well, psychology has always seemed rather imprecise as a branch of medicine. What is your specialty?"

Cassie smiles back. Medical specialties is a fun topic and one she hasn't really gotten to talk about with anyone lately. "Trauma mainly," she says. "Surgery as well. Lately I've spent quite a lot of time trying to learn advanced nuclear biology and work out a formula to keep up with this one's metabolism." At that she knocks an elbow against Steve and he rolls his eyes in response.

"A long running and noble battle and one made rather difficult by rationing," Peggy replies, stepping back through her door and gesturing for them to join him. "Come in the both of you. They've brought me tea and I was given a rather large box of cookies by my niece. The girl can't cook but she bakes like you wouldn't believe."

Steve takes her hand again and gives it a squeeze as Peggy leads them in to a well appointed and comfortable seeming living room. There's a selection of couches and stuffed armchairs arranged around a coffee table already ladened with tea for three. A set of French doors looks like they would open out on to a sunny patio containing a set of white wicker outdoor furniture. The walls are painted a tasteful light blue and the carpet is a spotless cream thing that makes Cassie want to take her shoes off at the door to avoid stepping on it.

A hand grips her forearm and Cassie allows herself to be steered over to the couch. "We'll sit. Steve darling? Why don't you bring in the cookies? They're in a tin on top of the refrigerator. You're certainly tall enough to reach it."

"That is helpful," Cassie agrees as she sits. "I sometimes make him come grocery shopping so I can get things off of the top shelves without having to jump or climb the shelves."

"Have you ever actually done either of those things?" Steve asks, retrieving the aforementioned tin with a minimal effort and coming over to join them.

Cassie scoots to the side so he can sit next to her and across from Peggy. "I may or may not have resorted to grocery climbing in the cereal isle a time or two," she hedges. "No one has any pictures and you will never be able to prove it."

Peggy gives a brisk laugh. "Oh darling you can prove almost anything and someone always has pictures. If you learn nothing else from being a spy it's that."

"We leave the spying to Natasha," Steve says, taking a cookie and swallowing it in two mouthfuls. "Or we used to anyway. I don't really know who we have doing it now. I probably outta check."

She lifts two fingers and purposefully smoothes out the wrinkles in his forehead. "Stop it," she says firmly. "We are beginning vacation in approximately twenty-four hours. You can deal with work problems another time. I promise you they will still be there. Hill probably has it handled anyway."

"Besides you were never very good at subtlety," Peggy adds, spooning a careful measure of sugar in to her tea. "Even when you were a foot smaller." She reaches out and pats his knee with the hand not holding her tea. "Best leave the spies to be spies. Like cacti, they do their best without interference," she turns back to Cassie. "Has any body ever told you the story of the flag during training?"

Cassie shakes her head. "No Steve never has." She pointedly ignores Steve's moan of protest and stays focused on Peggy. "We've had Bucky back for quite a while but his memory is still spotty. I've gotten some good stories on this one from him from before the war but not much during."

"I should have known that this was going to end with the two of you ganging up on me," Steve mutters, dropping his head in to one of his hands.

"You have met literally all of my friends by now," Cassie says unsympathetically. "You have an unfiltered tap line on every embarrassing story I have ever been a part of. I only have two sources. Man up and let me enjoy them."

Peggy grins in a way that is ever so slightly devilish. "I'm afraid Mr. Barnes would not have known this story even if his memory were in pristine working order which it by no accounts happens to be. The story I'm talking about happened during his initial training before the serum. Barnes had already been deployed for quite a while. Myself, Colonel Phillips, and the other recruits would be the only witnesses. I don't believe the story ever made it in to the museum display."

This begins what turns out to be a lovely two hours full of stories Cassie's either never heard before or heard with only the barest of details. Despite being occasionally embarrassed at the subject matter, Steve is a good enough sport to contribute his own details and between the two of them the stories come alive. Out of fairness, Cassie contributes a few stories of her own and answers each and every question directed at her with utter honesty.

She stays quiet while Steve talks about the fall of SHIELD and helps to explain what he can about what happened with Ultron. Occasionally she takes over the threads of the story when Steve has blanks. Most of those blank spaces occur during times where he was busy being beaten up or fighting off large and violent portions of a foreign highly hostile force.

However, aware as she is Peggy is clearly wearing thin by about lunch time. She starts having to double back on her own narratives and begins repeating questions she's already asked. Once or twice she frowns at Cassie like she's briefly forgotten who she is before figuring it out again. Basically, Peggy is getting tired.

Steve notices it too because he's the one who begins to make their excuses, saying they should leave so Peggy can have her afternoon. He does it tactfully enough, phrasing it like Peggy must be busy which she very much might think she is if her brain is convincing her it's sometime twenty years ago. Peggy looks a little fuzzy, but nods and stands up to show them out.

She pushes Steve towards the door in front of the two of them but holds Cassie back for a moment. "Go on out Steve," she says. "I'll just have a quick word with Cassie and send her out to you." She leans up in to the goodbye hug Steve gives her and Cassie notes that if Steve holds her carefully sometimes, he holds Peggy like she might have spun glass in her bones no matter how strong she is in personality.

"It was lovely to see you," she says. "You must come again. Bring Sergeant Barnes next time. I should like to see him as well."

"Of course Peg," Steve says with a smile. "He'll want to see you too." Then he steps back and nods to Cassie. "I'll wait for you out by the car, okay?"

Cassie nods in response. "I'll be out in a minute or two."

He leaves and then Cassie turns back to Peggy and waits for her to speak. She doesn't know exactly what's coming but she thinks they've had a positive enough interaction so far that it likely won't be bad. At the same time, she's never really been on the receiving end of a woman to woman talk with a former founder of an international intelligence agency. She's handled goddesses and queens before. How hard can this be?

...

...

...

Very hard.

Very hard is the answer.

Peggy might be getting tired but now her gaze is completely lucid. "Now then," she says. "You seem to be a lovely girl. You're obviously intelligent, capable and committed to your job, you're mentally flexible, have a good sense of humor, and most importantly you seem to realize that the people you work with are in fact people and not merely assets. Steve seems happy and appears to care for you a great deal. With all of that said I have only one question."

Cassie spreads her hands. "If you'll forgive a bad piece of wordplay, shoot."

"Very well," Peggy says with a nod. "Do you love him as much as he loves you?"

It's certainly a clear cut question and Cassie swallows once before answering. "Yes," she says clearly. "Yes I do." She bites her lower lip and then continues. "My life before I met Steve was- was impermanent. Nothing was stable and I never made any long term plans. I didn't expect to have a future. Now, the two of us are planning a future together. And it's good."

Peggy nods again, this time more decisively. "Good. He's been through so much pain and carries so much sadness. He tries to hide it but the man has never been able to lie god rest him. We all carried something like it after the war. I was very fortunate in finding a partner to carry the weight with. Steve deserves that too."

"We look out for each other," Cassie says. "The two of us in particular, but everyone on the team does really. A few of my friends from school and training have joined it now to fill in some gaps. One of them is dating Bucky actually, and Bucky and Sam look out for Steve in the field when I can't be there."

A smile spreads across Peggy's face. "From everything I've heard it sounds as though you've all managed to build the kind of extended family a lonely Irish Catholic boy and an orphaned German girl would both have only dreamed about. Dysfunctional naturally- any family with a Stark in it must be- but then again, all the best families do seem to be. My own family grew to be a rather complicated mess. And quite without my noticing."

Cassie smiles back. "'Dysfunctional' is the only kind of family I've ever had. I don't think I'd know what to do with a life with set working hours and 2.5 averages."

"Very good," Peggy says, beginning to show her towards the door. "Now off you go. Steve was quite sweet to say I must be busy, but really I believe I'm due for a nap. Meanwhile it was very lovey to meet you. You must come back again. With Steve or without him. I believe we could have quite a bit to talk over together. Perhaps with proper scones."

They're at the door now but Cassie pauses before going out. "I'll look forward to it." She hopes her voice matches the sincerity she feels with that remark and something of it must because Peggy steps forwards and hugs her goodbye instead go shaking her hand.

"Off now," she says when she breaks away. "You've a vacation to enjoy. And I do believe it will be splendid."

Cassie grins and rolls her eyes all at once as she bids Peggy goodbye and moves off down the hallway.

Clearly, the only person who is really and completely in the dark about where she'll be going on vacation is her.

Excellent.

 **A/N: Well there it is guys. I know it's been a while but I spent the last three weeks in the U.K with my family doing quite a bit of travel and** **didn't bring my computer for ease of movement and packing. We were there to help my elder sister move home after her graduation. If you've got a moment and feel inclined, project some congratulatory thoughts. Plus the airline lost all of our checked baggage and it's kind of freaked her out so nice vibes would be good. I meant for this chapter to get to the start of the vacation when I first mapped it out but the talk with Peggy ended up taking more 'screen time' than I thought it would at first. I wrote this kind of jet lagged still so there might be a few more mistakes than normal and I apologize for that. If there are seriously just too many to be tenable, please someone tell me and I'll do some edits. Can anyone guess where Steve and Cassie are going? What did you think of the chapter. Tell me what you think! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: If anyone reading this story is still looking for this at the top of each post than those people should know that I am highly impressed with your dedication to copyright law and distribution guidelines. In fact, if anybody out there has the legal knowledge to know exactly why this little note is necessary for each chapter instead of just the story as a whole I would honestly love for them to explain it to me. With all of that said (or written as it were) it should be noted that I do not in fact, own anything except for Cassie and the individualized plot bits I have her in. If you recognize something as belonging to Rick Riordan or the nice folks over at Marvel then you should just assume that it belongs to them and not me. I am not paid for any of this by anybody. Suing me would be entirely pointless.**

Cassie assumes she'll be able to figure out what their actual destination is when they get to the airport. How will she be unable to? Airports have destination boards that tell you where the plane you're about to get on is going. They gave you tickets detailing your pertinent flight information and check your baggage for you to send it off to meet you when you land.

Airports are systematic and incredibly obvious.

And yet...

Her assumption still proves to be wrong.

It's thwarted by the fact that her boyfriend is a tactical planner, and also friends with a mega-sized billionaire. This happens to mean that apparently they have access to private jets when they want to use them. Which, yeah that concept is still something that she's going to have to get used to. They've used private planes to get to and from missions, but never for something benign as a mystery vacation.

They drive to a private air field just outside of Richmond in a car belonging to Stark Enterprises and a young man in a very efficient looking flight red flight suit with the company monogram stitched on the pocket loads their bags in to the cargo hold. One of the bags is a rolling suitcase Cassie didn't know she owned but apparently does. Another is her own familiar old duffle bag. The other bag must belong to Steve.

While Cassie is busy staring at this seamless efficiency Steve gets out of the car and comes around to open her door for her. She looks up at him with raised eyebrows and wide eyes. "Did you seriously ask to borrow a private plane to get us to our vacation just to perpetuate the suspense involved?"

When Steve answers he does so in a way that completely lacks anything resembling shame. "Partly," he says, reaching in to the car and taking her hand to pull her up and on to the pavement next to him. "We'll call that like fifty percent of the reason."

"What's the other fifty percent?" Cassie asks, reaching back in to the car to retrieve her other bag. She gets to hold it herself for about twelve seconds before Steve takes it from her, completely ignoring her rolling eyes in the process. Steve knows she's capable of holding and carrying her own things but this seems to be one of those things he has firmly fixed in his mind as chivalrous and socially good manners.

He takes her hand as they walk towards the plane as well as a moment to consider. "Well at least some of it is that commercial plane seats are tiny, and while you are small enough to make that work, I'm well not." He gestures at the width of his shoulders to demonstrate which pulls Cassie's attention to them and his chest and derails her focus for a solid few heartbeats. Hey, her boyfriend is hot and she has a biological reason for being easily distractible.

When Cassie gets back to reality Steve is fighting down a grin and she makes a face at him. All that happens is that his smile gets wider. "Another part of the reason is that Tony offered and all of my life experience tells me that there's no point in refusing things from anybody with the last name 'Stark'. And I kinda wanted to see what the plane would actually look like."

"But mostly..." Cassie says leadingly as she goes up the stairs and in to the main belly of the plane.

"Mostly yes it was to up the suspense," Steve concedes, leaning down to kiss her cheek as they both step inside and the plane door shuts behind them. "You told me I could surprise you and I'm running with it for as long as possible."

She nods and looks around the inside of the plane for a space to store the bag that Steve still won't let her carry. "I concede that under these circumstances that is your right. You should also probably enjoy it while you can. Most of the surprises I've ever gotten in my life have involved near death experiences and therefore kind of sucked in a way that left a lasting impression."

Steve sets the bag down in one of the several empty plush seats ranged around the interior of the plane and sits down near it as Cassie looks around. "That's what I thought. Can you see any food in this thing?"

At this point in their relationship Cassie is completely aware of the sheer volume of food her boyfriend needs to consume in order to function as a human being. The fact that they ate breakfast this morning isn't worth pointing out and probably isn't having much impact. Still, that had only been about two hours ago and even for Steve that turn around time is a little quick.

Buttons are incredibly entertaining to push and Cassie occupies herself by trying a few of them. One of those buttons activates a screen along the back wall. One of the items on the screen is labeled 'Food' and Cassie uses the holographic controls to highlight and select that option.

A full menu selection fills the screen. The options all appear to be gourmet and would give a restaurant with a Michelin rating a run for it's money. Next to each menu item is a tiny picture of the food listed that can be enlarged for better viewing.

At times like these Cassie is really happy that the Mercury in her DNA let's her use technology as easily as she can. This tech is seriously cool. Which is something that neither Tony nor Leo will ever hear her say out loud.

"There we go," she says with a gesture. "All the food we could want whenever we could possibly want it." She frowns slightly as she feels suddenly forced to wonder if Stark has some poor five star chef named Michelle locked away and imprisoned somewhere in the bowels of the plane. If there is she feels like they should probably do something to help him.

Steve is staring at the board with a look on his face that's somewhere between wonderment and vague shock. "I meant peanuts but I guess I should have known Stark wouldn't be that simple."

Cassie flicks through a few options. "Well there's thai food," she observes. "There's probably peanuts in that."

Inside she's having a similar repressed shock freak out but on the outside she's maintaining calm flippancy pretty well. At this point in her life that's a survival function, a default setting as it were. If something is throwing her she rationalizes it down to the single most practical level possible and attempts to make it a casual feature of her landscape. Treat something as normal and eventually it becomes that way.

Hopefully.

Yeah. Cassie's still working on that.

Steve shakes his head. "The amount of food that people just have access to these days just about blows my mind sometimes. I'll think I'm over being shocked by it. Then I walk in to a grocery store where everything is just... there. I grew up with the depression and rationing. These days people are terrified of eating things out of certain kinds of cans and throw out eggs two days past their expiration date."

Cassie shuts down the screen and flops down in to the seat beside him. She kicks off her shoes (because apparently that's the kind of in-flight experience they'll be having) and tucks her her feet up in to the seat next to her. "I spent about three months figuring out which of the Everglade Swamp species I could eat to keep from starving and using my newly found powers to desalinate water," she says. "And I had to do it by trial and error. The first time I tried it was about six types of awful"

She tips to the side to rest her head on his shoulder. Steve shifts one arm so that it's rounder shoulders and she can nestle more in to his side. These seats don't have typical dividers or required safety belts and therefore cuddling is considerably easier.

"I remember the first actual food I managed to get my hands on after leaving home," she says. "I snuck in to a gas station and stole a few bags of trail mix and beef jerky along with a sixteen ounce bottle of water. I got away with it because the guy behind the counter couldn't see me over the shelves. I was too short." She shrugs and Steve's arm moves a little with her change. "The idea of being able to go to an organic farmers market and buy whatever I want still throws me sometimes."

The warm weight of Steve's lips presses in to the crown of her head and the two of them spend the next several moments in silence. The plane taxis and takes off without any kind of safety announcement and for a few minutes Cassie wonders who exactly is flying. BY looking out of the window, Cassie is able to watch the rest of the world dropping away from her and vanishing. It's always her favorite part of flying.

Steve runs his fingers over the sleeve of her sweater, watching the same thing she is. When the ground is hidden by the cloud layer he shifts to kiss her and Cassie lets herself melt in to it. Later he pulls back and Cassie settles back in against his side.

"I'll order some food in a bit," he decides. "Do you want anything."

Cassie shakes her head. "Maybe later. Actually I think I might nap." She leans up to look at him. "That is, if we're going to be in the air long enough to make that worth while Oh Grand Vacation Master?"

He makes a face at her and shifts so that they'll both be more comfortable. "I've spent enough time with Natasha by now to know that you're fishing," he informs her. "And I would like to tell you that it's not going to work. Meanwhile, yes you can nap. I'll wake you up when we're about to land. Or maybe I won't. Maybe you'll wake up before that happens. It's a mystery."

Cassie just sighs and settles in. They'd gotten up early and the night before hadn't been exactly restful. She's used to functioning without a whole lot of sleep but there's no reason she has to right now. "Most pillows aren't this mysterious," she comments lightly. "Or this sarcastic."

His chest shakes a little and Cassie has to assume he's trying not to laugh. "Go to sleep."

She decides to take his advice and get's ready to nod off. However, she makes a point of noting what time it is to check against when she wakes up again. Elapsed time can tell you a lot about how far you've gone during flight. Provided that this plane will go at the speed that a normal plane does, which thanks to Stark's involvement really can't be guaranteed.

With that thought spinning around in her head, she nods off.

When she wakes up it's two and a half hours later according to her watch and all Cassie can reasonably infer is that they definitely aren't going to Chicago, Canada, or really anywhere in the continental mid-west of the United States. Actually, she's pretty sure they're somewhere over an ocean but she can't really get any hints from the position of the sun like she normally can. One of the things that throws Cassie about long distance flying is the way the sun can seem to be fixed in position as she travels.

For all of her pre-sleep complaining Steve's held relatively still while she was unconscious and seems to have held out on ordering food until she woe up to eat with him. They have fun flicking through the different meal options and end up with multiple plates of food so expensive and well prepared that Cassie kind of wants to take a picture of the table the way some people on the internet seemed to enjoy doing. Then they kill time by trying to figure out what movies they can knock of off Steve's ever changing pop culture list. They end up marathoning several episodes of the West Wing and eventually it ends up being Steve's turn to fall asleep on her.

They land approximately six hours after they take off and Cassie figures out where they are in about five minutes, thus solving the mystery that's been plaguing her since Steve started planning this whole thing. The position of the sun as it shines blearily through the persistent cloud layer gives her a hint. The characteristic red double decker buses and black cabs as well as the accents of the people speaking around her sort out everything else and confirm her initial theory.

"London," she states as their possessions are unloaded and carried to a waiting car for them. "We're in London."

Steve looks back at her as he opens the car door for her. "Yeah," he says quietly. "Yeah we are. I figure it's central enough that we can take the train or rent a car to see more of the U.K-" he trails off and gives a small shrug. "You've never been," he continues. "And the only times I've come were during the war between missions on twenty-four hour leaves, and I had to juggle air raid sirens and everything else. I figured- I wanted to see it with nobody bombing it, and I wanted to see it with you. Is that alright?"

Cassie is just about beyond words so she braces her hand on the open car door and kisses him quickly and thoroughly so they don't hold up any of the traffic streaming around them. One of his hands moves to her hip to help support her as she moves her weight on to her toes. When they break apart he's fairly obviously reluctant to let her put any kind of distance between them.

"It's perfect," she tells him.

Then she slides in to the back seat and moves over so that Steve can sit next to her. He gives the driver the name of the hotel they'll be staying in and the man in front pulls out in to traffic without a word. The ease of the motion draws Cassie to note that the driver's seat is naturally on the left instead of the right. She hopes Steve knows how to drive on that side because she certainly doesn't.

"I'm not even sure I can get jet lagged any more," Steve muses out loud. "Do you? I didn't think to ask. There's a six hour time difference between here and New York."

Cassie actually considers the question for a while. Almost none of the travel across timezones she's ever done has been long term or happened so directly. She's never just flown across multiple timezones in a day. All of her travel has always been absolutely immediate or considerably slower and either way jet lag has never been a factor. The missions she's done with the Avengers have mostly had her away and back in under forty-eight hours.

She laughs a little as she realizes that she actually has no idea how to answer that question. "I honestly have no idea," she tells him honestly. "It's never happened before but there's no saying it won't. What time is it here?"

Steve checks something on his Stark phone. "About two o'clock in the afternoon. Which oddly enough is about the same time it was when we left New York." He looks over at her assentingly and seems to make some kind of decision. "Let's go to the hotel and check in," he says. "Then we can just take this afternoon slowly. We've got nothing on the schedule."

Cassie nods her agreement. "That sounds good. Maybe we could go for a walk or something around the neighborhood to get stretched out. Tony's plane was comfortable but it was still six hours in a plane."

"There's a pool and hot tub in the hotel basement," Steve informs her. "I made sure of that. Might be a nice way to spend the afternoon. Then we could go out for dinner."

She smiles. "That sounds awesome. I don't think I've stayed in a really nice hotel since I was about thirteen. And the niceness of that hotel was a little in question since it was the same place that Nico and Bianca DiAngelo were parked in for seventy years. We went in for a few hours and ended up losing a week. And we were on a time sensitive mission too."

Steve is giving her the look he gives her when she's dropped some new details on his head and he isn't sure how to assimilate them just yet. He shakes his head. "Some day you're going to have to just write all of this down for me and I'll be able to have reference pages."

Cassie shrugs. "Last time I heard, Percy was working on it. But he's pretty majorly dyslexic so getting anything out of that might take a while." She frowns. "In hindsight we probably should have asked somebody else."

"Do any of you guys not have dyslexia?" Steve asks curiously. "I'm just wondering because all of you seems to work around it pretty well."

"Most Greek demigods do," Cassie tells him. "I explained about our brains being wired differently back when we were first dating. Some of us have exceptions. Leo and Piper can both read okay but their ADHD is pretty bad, especially with Leo. Hazel and Percy both are but Nico and Jason aren't. I've actually got a bit of a theory about it but there's not a lot of proof to back it up."

Steve shifts in his seat to look at her. "What's your theory?"

She shrugs a bit. "Well for one thing, there was historically a really big difference between how the Greek and Roman empires treated language. The Greeks kind of let all of the different cultures in their empire live and let be. There was this great big hodgepodge without a dominant element. The language changed pretty drastically from region to region. The Romans forced everyone in their empire to learn Latin if they wanted to survive. Now, most Latin demigods can read English just fine and Greek ones generally find it more challenging. Plus English is more based on Latin than it is on Greek anyway. Like I said, this is all just theoretical."

He lifts her hand from the seat between them and presses a kiss against the back of it. "Your theories are pretty incredible."

Cassie doesn't end up responding because they've pulled up in front of their hotel and have to pay the driver and get out of the car. A bellhop loads their luggage on to a cart as they make their way quickly inside to get out of the rain that's just begun to drizzle down on them in what Cassie hears is a typical fashion for England. She's heard stories from Sadie Kane before and a surprising amount of them mentioned the weather.

The lobby is high ceilinged, spacious, and opulent in the way only old and lovingly maintained and restored buildings can possibly be. Cassie occupies herself while Steve checks in by reading a plaque on the wall that details the reconstruction done on the hotel after it was bombed during the London Blitz. The durability and strength of people really never fails to amaze her, especially when she's standing in the middle of it.

An old-fashioned elevator takes them up to almost the top of the building and then the bellhop takes them to their room to drop off their things. Steve tips him and shuts the door as Cassie admires the view of the city spread out for them beyond the windows. There's an incredible panorama and the kind of sigh lines that would make the average marksman giddy with joy. Steve clearly did his research when he picked the hotel.

Cassie loves him for that.

Once they've unpacked a little they follow through on the tentative plan they had made in the car. Cassie makes her way down to the pool while Steve ventures out to change money and find them some food for dinner and maybe breakfast tomorrow. She gets the feeling he's also looking to get the lay of the land and fix the schematics of the neighborhood in his head just in case anything happens.

That's not so hard to understand.

A lot of the things Cassie does she ends up doing 'just in case something happens'.

Best case scenario nothing does and a little bit of time gets wasted. Worst case scenario, everything happens and having checked out potential running and escape routes pays off in spades. Steve will give her the low down later in all tactical detail.

It's nice having someone around to fill in tactical gaps.

With that in mind she takes a nice leisurely swim. It's a nice thing to do without the possibility of sea monsters trying to eat her. After that she gives herself some time in the hot tub and greatly enjoys the way the jets help pound the stiffness of flying all day out of her muscles.

Then she goes back to the room. Steve is still gone so she takes advantage of the undoubtedly five star shower and takes the time to put on some skin lotion. She also drinks about a gallon of water. Everything she knows about prolonged air travel emphasizes the fact that dehydration is a major issue to be avoided lest a person is willing to endure dire consequences.

She makes Steve drink about twice as much as she had when he comes back with the food later. Dinner ends up being some really amazing fresh bread, cheese, meat, fruit, and a selection of veggies, all apparently procured from a covered outdoor market near the Thames river and the Tate Modern art museum. Once that's all gone Steve finishes off the display of his recon skills by producing a selection of pastries bought from a french bakery which here are called Patisseries. Given the relative proximity they have to France here, that's not actually surprising.

They might actually both be a little jet lagged because they pass out curled up together on the mattress under a blanket that's unusual comfortable for a hotel. They sleep for at least ten hours which is a personal record for Cassie in her recent history. Then they start to explore London.

The vacation is set up so that they have two full weeks in London and another two weeks after to travel around the rest of the United Kingdom by car. Apparently Steve has a completed line up of hotels and short term rentals spread throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales that they'll be taking advantage of as they go. Cassie puts up a token prayer to whomever the god of complex travel may be that Steve really can drive on the correct portion of the road.

While in London they make sure they hit up all of the main tourist attractions. They see Trafalgars Square, The Tower of London, and the Crown Jewels. They ride through the entire circuit of the London eye and pay extra to stay on the wheel longer so that Steve can keep sketching the view from the top without a break of longer than twenty minutes.

Cassie alternates between looking at the view herself and watching Steve's hand flying across the page faster than should be possible, racing to recreate the image with graphite and paper. No one talks to them while they sit there. Every one is just as struck by the view as they are and it's a wonderful sense of privacy and camaraderie at the same time.

Hyde Park is beautiful and they spend a very happy morning walking the paths and dropping bread crumbs to huge clusters of ducks. This involves studiously ignoring the signs around the water's edge telling them no to feed the birds. They figure that the water fowl wouldn't bother to congregate in the park every day if people weren't feeding them in the first place.

Tour boats go up and down the Thames several times a day and they spend a lovely day listening to a guide telling them about the architecture and history of the buildings along the water. They walk to Saint Paul's Cathedral and take a seemingly endless staircase up the very top.

Westminster Abbey is crowded but it provides a very comprehensive and articulate self-guided audio tour and Cassie is incredibly grateful that she doesn't have to battle through reading tiny fine print information signs to enjoy the experience. Quite a lot of the people buried in Poet's Corner are actually much older half-siblings of hers and Steve has some fun bringing up random names and asking if she's related. Not all of them are directly connected to her but plenty are descendants of Minerva, Athena, Ares, and Mars.

Cleopatra's Needle is avoided like the plague. They also stay away from the British Museum and the Rosetta Stone. Cassie has heard too many stories from the Kane siblings about the number of gods and the amounts of godly power hanging around those places.

One of the museums they do go to is the Tate Modern. Cassie has a hard time with most modern art but there's an exhibition going on Matisse where she spends hours as Steve wanders around. The single mounted mirror on one wall throws her off a little though, and that's where Steve finds her.

She points at it. "I'm having some issues getting this," she tells him. "Any thoughts? Cuz I've gotta say I'm lost."

Steve steps behind her and wraps his arms around her, leaning his chin on the top of her head. "Hmmm..." he muses, the sound rumbling through his chest as his breath stirs the hair on the top of her head. "Could be a comment on the human body being nature's work of art?"

Cassie rolls her eyes and leans further back in to him. "Okay even I got that far."

"Isn't your dad the god of this kind of thing?"

"It's either him or Hephaestus," Cassie confirms. "You should see some of the stuff that cabin comes up with in arts and crafts. But either way I'm pretty sure that neither one of them is involved in this. Are we stuck making random guesses? Is this where we give up?"

Steve chuckles and holds her a little tighter. "I refuse to be defeated by a mirror. Fine. Look at the mirror. Really take a moment and see what it shows. Go on."

Cassie does what he says and looks. There they both are. She's tucked against Steve and his head is bent over hers as he meets her eyes in the mirror. As she looks he moves his hands and intertwines their fingers. They're both smiling, and bright, and... Gods do they look happy

"I think," Steve says slowly. "That the point is that the picture in the mirror is what you make it. It can show a lonely person on their own. It can be someone you know or you might look in the mirror one morning and see a complete and utter stranger. Or maybe, it shows you yourself happy, and with the person you love. Whatever you are free of any interpretation except your own. It's the ultimate in art being in the eye of the beholder."

She smiles and so does the her in the mirror. Then she turns her head and kisses him gently. She doesn't let it linger- they're in public after all- but she tries her best to fill the gesture with love. "Well spun," she tells him. "Possibly pulled out of your ass, but I'll give you points for it anyway."

"I like that you think me pulling that out of thin air was only a possibility."

Later in a moment of brilliance and Steve relaxation Cassie wheedles him in to some schedule relaxation and popular culture indulgence. They end up making time to go to a place called the Sherlock Holmes Tavern where they together discover the absolute joy that is hot sticky toffee pudding served with vanilla ice cream. That same day involves a trip to current 221B Baker Street which is less impressive in person and flooded with people doing exactly what they are.

It also turns out that Steve has never since waking up had time to experience any of the wonderful world of Harry Potter. Upon hearing that, Cassie makes immediate moves to rectify the situation by stopping in the middle of the street to go in to the nearest book store. She comes out a few minutes later with the full seven book set which she presents to Steve triumphantly and insists he read.

Steve has n incredibly high reading speed but the level of absolute absorption he sinks in to once he gets going is highly entertaining. They spend a full weekend siting on a picnic blanket in the park with a considerable spread of food in front of them while Steve reads and Cassie enjoys all the new music she missed during the Ultron debacle and it's fall out. He finishes the second book in the series and looks around blinking for a moment. Cassie responds to the moment by handing him a sandwich and the _Prisoner of Azkaban._

By the time he's done with book four he sits in contemplative silence for a moment. Then he says. "So does the whole Cho Chang thing last? Do I need to care about her more?"

"Do you really want spoilers or would you prefer to be surprised?" Cassie checks.

He contemplates, looks to where the last three books are stacked, and then seems to form his decision. When he speaks it's with the dead-heavy level of seriousness normally reserved for important mission briefs and tactical meetings. "I'm going to need you to form a hard line no tolerance policy against you answering any and all plot related questions for the duration of the series."

Cassie fights down a laugh but can't repress a smile as she gives him a perfect military standard salute. "Yes Sir, Captain Sir."

This choice leads to a number of instances wherein Steve lifts his head with a question clearly on his lips. Each time this happens Cassie gives him a meaningful look over the top of whatever i is she's working on and maintains direct eye contact until he nods and goes back to the book. A few times he actually manages to formulate the question he wants to ask and Cassie is forced to resort to screwing her eyes shut and covering her ears with her hands as she hums several bars of an Italian aria as loudly as she can.

She hadn't known that she knew Italian operas. Actually, she hand't known that she knew any operas at all. But apparently she does because all of that music is right there in her head and ready to go. Maybe this is how Percy felt when he realized he knew a full ass load of sailing terminology without having ever been on a boat in his life before being chased by angry formerly guinea pig pirates.

Another sentence she hopes to never say out loud lest she be committed to a psych ward.

Once they've finished all of the books Cassie finds the movies and settles in to watch them with her boyfriend. She's seen them before but she can enjoy watching someone she loves see them for the first time and discover the happiness involved. She also let's Steve get drawn in to the behind the scenes special features included on each and every dvd of the films.

The result of this level of absorption is that they spend several days having very involved conversations about which Hogwarts house each of their friends would end up in. Mostly they agree but hit a few snags talking about where to put Banner, Tony, and Bucky. They end up deciding that Bruce and the Other Guy probably belong in two separate houses, Tony would likely have to pick, and Bucky's house would depend on weather he was being evaluated before or after Hydra had captured and experimented on him.

Yes this is a conversation an incredibly powerful demigod is having with her boyfriend Captain America. Cassie is highly aware of the situation and doesn't need it highlighted for her. Not on any possible level.

The other result of Steve's new enthrallment with the works of J.K Rowling is that a few stops get added to their trip. One of these is a trips to Kings Cross Station during which they do not take a train. Another is a studio tour of the place the movies were filmed. Once they get outside London they also go up to Oxford for a few nights and do the Harry Potter tour.

Cassie's pretty sure that Steve might abuse his celebrity status a little to get that tour because she can hear another young couple a few feet in front of them wondering about ticket availability. Apparently they were told that booking had to be done really far in advance. She's decided not to feel guilty about it. She and Steve have bothesaved the world several times. They deserve their Harry Potter location tour of Oxford.

While there they also have a lovely day spent punting on the river with the other boats and watch a rowing practice. The way the paddles move across the water in synch is vaguely hypnotizing and she and Steve spend a good ten minutes just watching the progress of the rowers. It's the kind of sedate paddling that simply doesn't exist at Camp, what with the supplied water monsters ready to fight you for combat practice.

One of the museums they visit consists of a series of low basements containing what looks like the evidence of the single most explosive accumulated case of hoarding in existence ever. That impression only increases when Steve shows her an informative sign explaining that most of the artifacts on display were all donated by the same singular rich guy who died a century ago. Maybe it's not hoarding when it's this well organized? She's going to have to look that up.

Several of the tours they pass seem to be spotting filming locations and settings for a British detective show which they then end up watching some of.

All Cassie has to say on the subject is that British detective shows are incredibly plentiful and dangerously addicting.

Exeter is the next location on their list. The surrounding area of Cornwall is beautiful and everywhere Cassie looks there's another beautiful view of rolling green hills or blue, blue water. They take a trip to King Arthur's supposed castle too.

The trip is supposed to be a two hour detour but they end up killing a whole day on the pebble beach, winding cliff paths, and scattered ruins. There's also a sea cave accessible at low tide named Merlin's Cave. It's about half-full of water when they go but still accessible. The salt water only comes up to about the middle of Steve's stomach but that of course means Cassie would be in it up to her chest.

Steve negotiates the cave by the simple expedient of wading through in a bathing suit. Cassie decides on the admittedly drier though more complex route of stepping between slippery, mostly submerged, rocks. She gets revenge for Steve laughing at her by jump tackling him from behind and making him carry her the rest of the way when she runs out of rocks.

Before they leave, a family on the tour kindly tells them that the rocks in Merlin's cave are supposed to be lucky if you take one with you. Cassie picks a small white rock that fits in her palm and feels perfectly smooth. Steve doesn't pick one himself but smiles as she slips her new good luck charm in to her pocket and walks over to him.

"Needed some more magic in your life?" he asks in a low voice so that people around them won't hear.

Cassie leans in closer and matches his tone. "Arthurian Legend is like the only cultural mythology that I have never seen proof of. Growing up, it was one of the only kinds of stories that could actually just be stories for me. Magic and druids are both in the stories, but most of the characters are really just people. Remarkable human beings who train and train and make mistakes but generally want to do what's right. I like a story that get's to just be a story."

Steve leans down to kiss her. "Maybe when we get home we can figure out a way to put it on a necklace. It's probably small enough right?"

"I think so. Might be a big necklace, but statement jewelry is a thing."

Before they leave Steve buys her a necklace she had been admiring at the English Heritage souvenir shop. She'd thought about getting it and changed her mind when she looked at the price. The necklace is a silver chain with a miniature bronze acorn and a tiny silver feather on it.

Steve announces that he bought it for her while she went to buy them authentic Cornish pasties. Pasties by the way are an amazing miniature pie filled with meat, cheese, and vegetables served piping hot and delicious. They're buttery and amazing and if she can find anywhere that makes them well back in the United States Cassie may have a new favorite food.

Anyway, Steve tells her he's made the purchase by dropping the chain over her head and fastening the clasp at the nape of her neck before she can say a word. The charm falls a little above her disguised bow and makes a lovely chiming noise where the metal pieces clink together. When Cassie asks why the present Steve just gins at her and says she deserves some jewelry that doesn't turn in to a magical deadly weapon.

She thanks him with a kiss and a beaming expression she hopes properly conveys her gratitude. "Thank you. I love it."

He leans over and kisses her again. "I love you. And you're welcome."

After that is Glasgow, then a tour of the Scottish Highlands which involves several metric tons of shortbread bought in a town where the smell of butter is detectable for a clear mile as soon as the door opens. They also see several historic ruins and restored castles. However, they avoid Loch Ness owing to the fact that Cassie really doesn't want to find out if that myth is one with a grounding in reality.

Two nights are spent in Edinburgh where they see St. Giles cathedral and Edinburgh Castle. They're not there at the right time to see the live military tattoo but there's a beautiful park in the city called The Meadows bordered by a number of cafes including one called Victor Hugo which serves awesome chai tea and pastries the size of Steve's head.

They also see a place called Grey Friar's Bobby, which mostly features a dog statue people are meant to touch for luck. The nose and toes of the dog shine more brightly than the rest of it and Cassie- remembering metal angles on the Hoover Dam- takes a moment to lean up and touch the nose herself. A graveyard close buy carries the names of several Harry Potter characters and a coffee house called the Elephant Cafe claims to be where J.K Rowling wrote the books so naturally they go in.

The menu carries several varieties of hot chocolate, each with a different kind of alcohol in them which keeps them entertained for quite a while. There are also pictures on the wall of J.K Rowling as well as a bulletin board filled with messages from fans. The biggest surprise is the bathroom in which every single inch of available surface is covered with quotes, signatures, and messages. This includes the walls, sink, ceiling, floor, toilet, mirror, and towel dispenser.

The last few stops on their journey are in Ireland.

Dublin is about as green and grey and rainy as any and all reporting would suggest it to be. They see Temple Bar and make a stop at the Guinness Storehouse despite the fact that neither of them actually drink beer. However, when in Ireland, you just took the guinness and didn't say a word about any other drink preference.

Dublin is also where Cassie finds out that Steve can read and even speak Gaelic.

It happens because many of the street signs are written in that language instead of English. Cassie doesn't even try to pronounce anything, but Steve manages to pronounce each word and street name perfectly when he asks one of the locals for directions. When she asks him why he never said anything, his response is that he learned the language as a child, but lost most of it by the time he was an adult.

"There were still signs around saying 'No Irish Need Apply'," he explains. "I didn't really sound or look Irish, and my name isn't a give away so I hid it pretty well. My mom had a hard time though. She never dropped the accent. When I was about twelve both my mother and Bucky's had told both of us along with his siblings to only speak Gaelic when we were at home, and even then to do it quietly."

They also visit Belfast and visit the museum dedicated to the building and sinking of the Titanic.

"I remember that there was an interesting exhibition on this back in New York a few years ago," she recollects. "Everyone who went in got a passenger ticket number and their personal details. You got to see which class of passenger they were and weather they had traveled with family and that kind of thing. Then at the end of the exhibit you could check and see if you had survived."

He quirks an eyebrow. "Did you?"

Cassie grins. "Hell yeah I lived," she says. "I was representing a first class single female under the age of fifteen and traveling alone. The name on the ticket was Isabella Parley. She would have been considered both a woman and a child and both those categories got you a prime lifeboat seat. Will didn't make it though. He also fell victim to the gift shop and bought a copy of the movie with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio." A horrifying realization that the end of that movie involves a man freezing to death suddenly pops in to her head. "We are not ever watching it."

This time Steve smiles and the shape of the expression is a little twisted. "Too late. Tony thought it would be funny to show it to me about two months after Loki invaded New York. What he didn't realize was that in 1912 both of my parents were still around. They both read about it in the newspapers. They published lists of the dead and lists of survivors. A lot of people actually went down to the docks when the ships that picked up the survivors came in."

She isn't sure what to say next. Instead of taking a guess and risking messing up the nice day they've been having, she just nods and squeezes his hand where it lies in hers. The content of the years Steve lived through before missing the better part of a century is so historic that she sometimes has a hard time conceptualizing it. She can only imagine how he, Bucky, and even Thor must feel.

Cork, Steve tells her is where his mother's family had immigrated from and that's where they go next. Because of that they spend quite a bit of time walking the streets. They also pay a visit to a graveyard and manage to locate the grave of Steve's great-grandparents. They leave flowers and while they're there Cassie occupies herself a little bit away to let Steve have a moment.

Monsters leave them alone until two days before they're meant to fly back to the United States. Actually Cassie's too busy being impressed with the fact that it took this long for any kind of nasty to pop up to feel mad about it. Also there's a certain cliche level at play that really she just has to laugh at.

The laughing is almost more of a problem for her to deal with than the monster. The effect of that is mixed. On the one hand she's laughing so hard she's almost bent double and is having a hard time catching her breath. On the other hand the werewolf in front of her seems to be too nonplussed to attack so maybe the time delay doesn't matter.

Steve might be a bit freaked.

"This is a werewolf," he's repeating for what must be the fifth time. "We're trapped in an alley with a werewolf. Why are you laughing? What do we do? Do we need to go get silver bullets or something?"

"Hey!" the son of Lycan protests. "Bullets hurt. I the getting shot. And all of this laughing is very hurtful. I worked hard on my menacing growl." The words come out a little bit garbled around his large canines and incisors. He's also wearing clothes which is unusual in her experience of werewolves. Most of them go naked. Not that she's complaining about that right now.

Cassie wipes her eyes and manages to straighten up, taking a deep breath. "Oh gods I'm sorry," she gasps, shaking her head. "I really am it's just," she gestures at the werewolf helplessly and then dissolves in to a fresh round of giggles. "He- he's- He's from- and now he's here. And I watched that movie before but I honestly never thought I was going to be living it and- Gods, okay. Where are you from just out of curiosity? Pennsylvania?"

The wolf snarls. "I'm from Hoboken!"

Steve's face of disgust at those words makes Cassie want to laugh all over again. "New Jersey?"

"You got something to say about it Pretty Boy?"

Steve puffs out his chest and actually looks ready to get in to a conversation here which more than anything else gets Cassie moving past her giggles to move this confrontation along. The werewolf probably already wants to kill them, Steve's devotion to all things New York and Brooklyn isn't fuel that needs adding to the fire. Though an actual literal physically there fire might be good right now. Werewolves weren't fans of flames.

She sighs and twists the charm on her necklace to activate her bow and quiver. A silver arrow is conveniently located at the top of her quiver and she selects it gratefully and draws the string. Her bow does that sometimes, just automatically provides the ammunition she actually needs for the given situation. It's lucky that it does because a lifetime friendship with many members of the Hephaestus cabin and the Hunters of Artemis has resulted in her having a wide, various, and plentiful, collection.

The shot is easy to line up and she knocks the arrow. "Alright. This has been lovely but now it's over." The arrow is released, flies across the space between them, and strikes it's target. The werewolf melts away in to the shadows with a screechy, whining, yip and a burst of sulfuric powder.

Steve still seems to be dumbstruck. The silence stretches between them like salt water taffy. It lasts for several heartbeats.

Then Cassie breaks down giggling again. "I can't believe I actually met an American werewolf in London."

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? Did you like their vacation? I thought of having the two of them go somewhere tropical and beach-y but I just got back from an expansive tour of the UK with my family. I've also been before and have actually seen and experienced a lot of the places and things I had them go do. I hope I conveyed the travel well. Anyway, I thought the two of them deserved a nice dose of low stress fluffy fun. Tell me what you thought! Review for me!**

 **P.S. I recently got a bit obsessed with the British detective show _Foyle's War._ It's set during WWII and one of the characters, Andrew Foyle, is a fighter pilot born the same year as Steve. I've noticed there isn't much content for the show on FF or AO3. Have any of you watched the show and if so would you be interested in seeing a few insane story ideas I have about it? Let me know if any of you have thoughts on it.**

 **xoxoxoxoxooxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: So no nothing is mine. Any legal action would have negative results. I also have no money. Please remember that.**

 **Quick Note: I reposted the last chapter because one of you lovely readers pointed out a little mistake I made with the dates. It's now fixed and thank you very much for letting me know. If anybody spots another mistake please don't hesitate to tell me!**

One of the things that becomes fairly clear when the plane lands is that, though life can go on without Steve and Cassie there, that life becomes remarkably less organized. Apparently, the highly valued qualities that the two of them bring to the metaphorical table of their workplace and friend group besides their numerous superpowers, leadership, and medical capabilities, are their levelheadedness and sanity levels. They are also both capable of sharing these levels out to their friends.

Thank all the gods for Pepper and Reyna. Sam, Barton, and Natasha all probably could have been calming influences too but are currently otherwise engaged. Barton and Natasha are both still enjoying there time on the Barton farm as far as Cassie knows. Although it's possible they're off in Manilla saving existence as humanity knows it. If that's the case, maybe Cassie'll hear about it from Nat next time they all meet up for coffee.

Sam apparently decided to spend a few Armageddon free weeks with his family down in the Carolinas somewhere. He's voluntarily isolating himself with his family. This further cements Cassie's already iron-clad belief that Sam Wilson is a very brave man.

All this to say that all of the Avengers (including the newer members) are highly public figures even at the best of times. Scant months post an accidental robot apocalypse caused by one of their teammates is not the nest of times. In fact, it's not even remotely 'good times'.

The result of hero-ing with a spotlight is that nothing in life can ever be private. Evidently this includes your flight plans. Flying in to a private airfield out in upstate New York clearly doesn't increase your odds of avoiding invasive press all that far. Well, to be clear the air field itself is still plenty private. What isn't private is the road directly outside of the airfield.

"I think this is how Princess Diana died," Cassie comments dryly as they both examine the hordes of paparazzi lining the formally quiet rural road. "I mean sure, there was a cliff and I think an illicit affair involved in that situation, but I don't think we can possibly be that far off."

Steve is busy craning his neck and using his six feet of height to figure out a way through the crowd that won't involve threats that would make bad sound bites or acts of imminent violence. Cassie isn't even trying to see over the heads of the crowd. It's a lost cause without either a step stool or an instant growth spurt, and neither of those is available.

He shrugs. "I missed that happening but I caught a late night documentary on it after I woke up." Cassie waits for him to notice her raised eyebrows and questioning expression which takes about six seconds. "I don't necessarily need to sleep as much as anyone else. Directly after New York, I didn't particularly want to try."

Cassie nods. Steve doesn't mention the levels of insomnia and PTSD he'd suffered early on after waking up in the twenty-first century, but she knows it wasn't good. Instead of poking she changes the subject. "Do you think there's a way out of here without getting sued for a hit-and-run? Because I am willing to bet that 'Captain America and Girlfriend Smush Reporter' isn't a headline we want to see."

"I think you'd win that bet," Steve concedes. He takes another moment to examine the matting hoards and then straightens his shoulders. "Okay I have a plan. Stay close."

She takes the instruction and slides over, melding herself in to his side. Steve wraps an arm around her and picks up their bags on the other side. "Not that I'm complaining about the proximity and personal contact," she says, leaning up to speak directly in to his ear. Cameras are flashing at them and after a particularly bright burst Cassie is starting to understand why celebrities always wear sunglasses. "But what exactly is your plan? If it involves sprinting I need to ditch my shoes."

Her footwear has broken a cardinal demigod rule and is not marathon friendly. Instead she's in flip flops which are nice for flying and comfort but not great for outrunning blood thirsty monsters. Hint hint, she's not talking about the mythological kind.

Steve shakes his head and leans down to talk to her. "No sprinting," he says. "The method I'm going with is tried and true. Very loud honesty." Before Cassie can ask what exactly that means Steve takes action. "Move away from the car or I will make you," he calls. "You know I can and you know that I will. Back up to at least a ten feet radius and get out of the road."

The press shockingly does as they're told though the pictures and shouting don't stop.

Happy Hogan, Tony's personal driver pulls forward and climbs out of the car. He opens the door for Cassie and she slides all the way across the back bench seat so that Steve can sit too. He waits a moment to help Happy load everything in to the trunk of the car and then climbs in next to her.

Moments later Happy climbs in front and revs the engine before pealing off down the road. They enjoy a brief moment of silence and Cassie shuts her eyes as she leans back in to the leather seats. She can hear Steve taking measured breaths and feels the shift of him rolling his head to stretch out his neck. Would it be a surprise to any one else to tell them that both of them had been relaxed twenty minutes ago?

Probably.

"So that was insane," Cassie comments, eyes still shut. "Were they that bad before we left? Or did I just not leave the tower enough after Ultron to know about it?"

A warm kiss lands on her forehead before a second one lands on her lips. "No," Steve says when he pulls away. "No. They weren't that bad. Pepper and Reyna had it under control and the world cared more about the recovery efforts and the immediate fall out. Apparently our personal lives are interesting again."

She nudges him in the side. "You're going to have to come up with a few more rants. Topic list includes Right to Choose, concealed carry, and pay equity. Take your pick."

Steve is normally focused, which makes it all the more entertaining that Cassie can get him to stop thinking about one issue and move him on to another so quickly. Immediately his face changes. "You know employers used to say that you didn't have to pay women much money because men had families to support and women were just working for spare change? My mom was a single mother supporting me and herself and that didn't get her nearly enough of a salary!"

Cassie reaches over and pats his shoulder. "There we go. Remember all that for the next time we have to leave the building. I'm sure there'll be fifty of our closest friends in the New York City press core ready and waiting to write it all down and report to their editors."

"What do you make on the dollar now?" Steve asks, beginning to search through his pockets. Possibly to take notes.

"I'm not a very good comparison," Cassie tells him honestly. "Tony pays me far more than any of my classmates are getting. Hades he's paying me more than people who graduated from my school fifteen years ago are currently making. Male or female. In general though, it's about eighty cents on the dollar if the woman is caucasian. I think there's also an argument being made by a lovely group of chauvinists that says that women choose to make less money than men over the course of their lives when they have kids."

The rant that follows after that brings them al the way in to the city. It's also one Cassie wishes she could record and leak to the press without feeling like it was an enormous violation of her boyfriend's privacy. By the end of it she thinks it's possible that Steve's next political project might seriously be to solve the issue of pay equity.

If that's the plan, it's one she can get on board with.

Happy drives them straight in to the tower garage, but on the way in they can see a larger than usual press contingent parked outside. They unload the car and take the elevator back up to their apartment. Actually, this reminds Cassie of the day they ended up almost accidentally moving in together. Hopefully this time will have fewer surprises and personal relationship adjustments attached.

The hope about having fewer surprises implodes with a comic style mental poofing noise as soon as the doors open for an unscheduled stop in the team common room. Or, what used to be the team common room. Now it looks more like a very expensive private playground has exploded. Minus sand, dirt, wood chips, and any and all things non-healthy and hypoallergenic.

Cassie stops short in the doorway as Steve throws out a hand to keep the elevator doors from sliding shut on them. "We only let Tony adopt the one kid right?" Steve checks with her.

"I only remember one," she confirms. "Which doesn't exactly mean that they couldn't have adopted more if they wanted Katya to have siblings. The gods know there are more than enough orphaned mortal kids and demigods who could use parents, but I'm sure _someone_ would have told us."

Steve frowns. "We can't even leave a private airfield without being mobbed. I can't imagine Stark and Pepper would be able to do a Brady Bunch without it showing up online or in the newspaper."

"You missed Princess Diane but you caught the Brady Bunch," Cassie muses, turning around to look up at him. "Someday we'll manage to fully prioritize the pop culture and historical list for you. Also, whoever made you watch that should be found and punished in retribution for what you had to sit through. Please tell me they only dragged you through the movie and didn't make you main line the TV show because that is too many episodes."

Steve grins and nudges her forwards in to the room. "I didn't actually watch it. Nat made a reference and then rolled her eyes and told me to look it up when I looked confused. I spent some time online looking at a plot summary and then decided that I never actually needed to watch it."

Cassie shifts a pile of legos off of one of the couches and sits down. "A wise choice. Annabeth's mom would be very proud," she hesitates as she kicks off her shoes. "Actually she probably already is. The gods choose mortal favorites pretty often. A lot of them liked Odysseus. Not Poseidon obviously but Athena was involved there and those two have issues."

"And yet their children are getting married."

She spreads her fingers. "Romeo and Juliet without so much murder and a convenient happy ending. Actually just with a happy ending. It wasn't really a convenient one, and there was definitely murder. Only not of people. Would you call it self-defense do you think?"

Steve moves a basket of Lincoln Logs and sits across from her. "As long as they attacked you first."

Cassie sighs and kicks of her shoes, twisting the tie out of her hair to let it down from the ponytail it's been in for the last six hours. "I guess I'll worry about that when the monsters of Tartarus figure out how to manage the judicial system." Suddenly it dawns on her that Alecto the fury has masqueraded as a lawyer more than once in living memory. "Oh shit."

Of course that's when the elevator opens and Tony walks in with Katya in tow. "Hey now," he calls. "There are little ears present. To quote a certain Captain, watch your gosh darned language."

"I have never said that ever," Steve mutters before changing his attention to Katya who is now hiding behind Tony's leg. "Hello Katya."

The little girl leans out and waves. Then she looks at Cassie who gives her a smile and she darts away to a fluffy looking and complex blanket fort still under construction. It's an impressive structure.

"Remember what we talked about," Tony calls after her. "Nothing beats a slack lined pulley system and couch cushions can always be used for upright structural support. Triangles and I beams, those are the keys."

Hearing this advice and knowing children of Hephaestus as she does, Cassie stands up and begins clearing off the rest of the couch. She grabs a few of the cushions and makes them in to a stack near Katya to be used for the building project. Katya thanks her in shy, accented language and quickly gets down to work. She'll probably be absorbed for the next hour or so.

She slides up next to Steve where he's talking to Tony and takes his hand. "So," she says. "If this is the playroom now, which you know, is totally fine, do we have a new team common space or are we giving up on that?"

Tony brushes the comment away with a wave of his hand. "I didn't see much point. I've been putting money in to the construction upstate and things are livable. The armory is fully stocked, as are the communal and group kitchens and bars. State of the art gyms, Olympic and SHIELD training facilities, plus I threw in a target shooting range and a climbing wall. Medical facilities are waiting for your walk-through and I've got the labs and R&D facilities prepped. We've got hangars, garages, and helipads set too."

"Housing and recruits?" Steve asks.

Tony pulls his phone out of his pocket and taps the screen a few times before giving it a flick to bring up a three dimensional projection of the blue prints for the facilities they're discussing. "Housing them over hear," he says, pointing to a set of low, military style barracks. "Set up to SHIELD standard issue, but with better tech and water pressure, according to Maria Hill. This wing is for recruit training. Cafeteria over here." He gives the projection a spin and indicates a separate set of buildings and storage marked with a stylized A. "The facilities set up for our specific needs are these ones. Specialized equipment and all."

Cassie reaches out and selects a building marked for medical use. "I'm guessing that this one is where I'll be?" she asks, looking up at Tony to check. "I'm assuming I'm taking the staff that works for me here. I might need to hire a few new people to round everything out."

"Yeah," Tony says, drawing out the word and tapping the building next to the one she's highlighted. "That building you tapped is for the medical research facilities and some of the record keeping. This one here is the hospital and functioning medical center. Pepper's put together some basic staff."

She sighs. "This is code for you having gone overboard once you found new equipment to build, buy, and house, so I'm going to have to spend the next month of my life in staff interviews for qualified trauma, accident and emergency personnel, GPs, and physical therapists." A muffled thump and a childish shriek of surprise interrupts the conversation momentarily as Tony's attention snaps to his newly adopted daughter until she emerges from beneath the blankets and gets back to her building. "Plus a pediatrician," she adds.

"Oh yeah," Tony says, skirting around them to scoop Katya out from under the piles of cushions to check her over for damages. "Add that on there. Katy, why don't we move along to the lego. Pep got you a pirate ship in desperate need of assembly." Katya makes a sound of delight and darts off to find the appropriate box. Cassie notices a few spark have landed in Tony's shirt which he beats out casually. "Any chance that pediatrician can be like you?"

Cassie groans and beats her head against the nearest solid surface. Luckily for her forehead and brain cells that turns out to be her boyfriend's chest which is marginally softer than a wall. Marginally.

"I'll call my brother in the morning when I'm less jet lagged," she says, her voice coming out muffled by Steve's shirt. "But I'm warning you now that getting Will means getting Nico. So, find a job somewhere in upstate New York for a History and Italian major who likes to wear black. Also make sure you didn't accidentally build on any kind of graveyard. Nico talks to ghosts."

Stark whirls and raises an eyebrow. "You mean he sees dead people?"

She points at him threateningly. "Stark there is no way in hell that you can make me drag Steve through _The Sixth Sense._ And I say this as someone who has personally been to at least one culture's version of hell and seen the inner workings."

"I think Bucky watched that movie," Steve says. "It's a horror film isn't it?"

Cassie makes a face. "Not my favorite genre. Real life has enough freaky monsters and summonable spirits. Some of whom really will do the eye bleeding insanity exorcist twist thing. I don't need to see them manufactured by Hollywood." She turns her head to look back at Tony. "Hiring my brother is going to be the same kind of situation as when you hired me," she warns. "Not a lot of in hospital training, no internship, no residency. You'll be getting medical school, battle experience, and healing magic."

Tony just shrugs. "If he can handle giving my demigod daughter shots and yearly physicals when she needs them I'm fine with it. Tell him to help you hire people and that I'll get him on salary as soon as he's done in school. Plus I'll get him and his boyfriend housing. There's gotta be an opening for an Italian speaking human Ouija board somewhere in the New Avengers."

Steve is a good enough sport to pull Cassie in to his chest before she can collapse in to it and rubs her back for a moment. "What is the new team housing like?" he asks over her head. "One big building with separated apartments again?"

Apparently that's the plan for the immediate future but not the long term. The property the new complex is built on contains nearly a dozen empty lots that the rest of the team can build on if they want to. If things go well with Stark's Malibu house they'll probably all just call Annabeth, Piper, and Rachel and have them design the houses after individual meetings with team members. Evidently it'll take them a while to get to that point though so they're not worrying about that yet.

Personally, Cassie is just going to try not to think about the fact that they're al going to have to move all of their things at least twice sometime in the next few years, and once in the next month or so. She's also going to have to call Will and figure out how the hell to run a job interview when you're in charge of hiring competent medical staff to service a top secret semi-private semi-government Avengers Initiative.

She's too jet lagged for this.

The sound of Steve yawning brings her back to alertness and she starts, standing up straight and grabbing ahold of Steve's hand. "Tony," she says, interrupting him mid stream. "At this point I have absolutely no idea what you just said and from the look on Steve's face he's catching every third word out of your mouth and reacting on thirty-three percent of the information. Tell one of the many underlings you pay to send us the rest of the information and then you two can continue this conversation after a minimum of six consecutive hours of sleep." She begins to tow her boyfriend out the door. "These are doctoral orders and I'm enforcing them. Bye Katy."

Katya waves back at her and then turns to look at Tony. "Come help?"

The simple request derails any protest or snarky comment Stark has on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he gives Cassie and Steve each a swift nod. "I'll have someone send you the building files and blueprints over night. We can talk somewhere near lunch time after I get Katya to the babysitter."

Cassie frowns. "You have a babysitter who's chill with the whole, 'accidental and unpredictable lighting on fire thing'?" She hopes that the tone of her voice says without her having too how unlikely that person's existence really is."

"Turns out those Maximoffs and McCaffrey are good for more than just their superpowers. Until I can figure out an everyday job to employ Mr. Speedy and Miss Witch Magic for, Pepper and I am using them for childcare to justify the money we're putting in to their bank accounts. Plus the company is sponsoring them for work visas which means we do actually have to show that they're being gainfully employed."

Steve blinks at his friend blearily and then looks at Cassie to see if she's processed the information any more coherently and completely than he has. She shakes her head to let him know that she hasn't. He turns to Tony. "I'm sure I'm going to know that all of that is important and vital to future team functions and operations at some point in the next twelve hours."

Tony rolls his eyes and waves them out. "Go crash the both of you. I'm going to go help my new daughter build a pirate ship. Try not to step on any lego pieces. Those things hurt like an absolute b-" he cuts himself off before the swear can come out. "It hurts," he grits out. "Leave. I'll see you when everyone's conscious. FRIDAY will have your schedule."

After that Cassie and Steve stumble out of the room and back in to the elevator. A yawn so expansive it pops Cassie's jaw comes up on her as a surprise. Steve is systematically pinching the skin on his inner arm between his fingernails to keep himself awake. Cassie doesn't know if he's capable of sleeping standing up but she wouldn't put it past his super soldier capabilities to make that possible.

They make it to their apartment and Steve hauls the bags in to their bedroom. Cassie stops in the kitchen to fill two large glasses with water. She drains one of them and brings the other one in to their room after Steve. She kicks her shoes off near the door and then passes the glass to Steve. "Drink," she tells him. "We'll figure out some food when we wake up. Right now I think I'm just going to pass out on the mattress. I might even do it while still in my clothes."

Steve finishes his water and puts it on the side table next to the bed. Then after a single glance at the bags he's dropped by the closet he simply sighs, shucks off his shirt, shoes, and pants. Then he collapses backwards onto the mattress in just his boxers. "Nice plan," he tells her, eyes already shutting.

Cassie grins tiredly and pulls off her pants before lying down and tugging at the blankets. "Lift so I can get under the covers," she tells him. Steve rolls sideways and pulls the edge of the puff back so that she can slide under them. After a moments consideration he rolls under to join her and tugs at the arm she has curled over her body. "Move on to your stomach?" he asks.

She does as he says with a tiny noise of discontent at having to move. A moment later she realizes Steve's train of thought as he walks his fingers up her spine to undo the clasp of her bra and pull the slightly pokey piece of clothing away from her skin. She shifts her weight from one arm to the other to help get it off her arms and makes a contented sigh as Steve tosses the garment away. "Thank you. Nice planning addition."

"I'm a decent improviser," Steve murmurs, half addressing his pillow. Or possibly her hair. "Those things must be seriously uncomfortable." He moves his fingers along the indents the bra had left in the skin over her ribs. "Don't think they've changed much in the last century either."

"Hmm," Cassie murmurs. "Maybe I'll suggest to Pepper that the next thing Stark can work on is inventing a better bra. Nat'll probably help out. Maybe Darcy too. 'Till someone comes up with something I'm just gonna be happy we've moved on from corsets." She shifts on the mattress until she's curled in to his chest and presses a kiss against the skin over his heartbeat. "Now sleep time. Night night."

If Steve responds at all, she doesn't hear it.

She's already asleep.

Actually she stays asleep for the next several hours until a quiet and repetitive _ping, ping, ping_ wakes her up by steadily increasing in volume. "Okay," he mumbles. "'m up. Steve?" she sits up and looks over her shoulder at the empty rumble of blankets where she had expected to find her boyfriend. "Huh," she mutters. "Guess your up too." She stretches and gazes up at the ceiling. "FRIDAY? I'm awake. You can quit the beeping now."

"Of course Doctor Morgenstern," says FRIDAY's crisp Irish accent. "Captain Rogers was called to an early meeting with Colonel Rhodes and Mr. Wilson an hour ago. He requested that you be left to sleep for as long as possible."

Cassie pushes her hair out of her face and reaches for her phone where it's siting on the night stand to check the time. The little glowing numbers tell her that it's just after eight in the morning. That means she's been asleep for nearly thirteen hours which for her is nearly unprecedented. To be fair though, between packing, sightseeing, travel, and the werewolf, she was up for nearly a full twenty-four hours prior.

She puts the phone down and then looks back up at the ceiling. It's still unclear to her about where to speak when addressing an AI but this is really the best guess she can make so she's going with it. "And it is no longer possible for me to still sleep because..."

The question is left hanging and FRIDAY is apparently programed to handle that kind of thing because an answer is immediately forth coming. "You have a somewhat time sensitive message from Miss Potts. As I understand it she is coordinating a social gathering amongst you, Miss Ramirez-Arellano, Miss Romanov, Miss Maximoff, Miss McCaffrey, and Miss Foster. I was asked to tell you that should you attend, you should bring any and all photographs from your recent vacation and in return will be provided with a full range of eggs, coffee, tea, pastries, and breakfast meats."

"What time am I supposed to arrive at this Breakfast Club?" she enquires, already calculating how much time she'll need to shower, brush her teeth and hair, and otherwise make herself presentable. In a pinch she can be ready in between twenty minutes and three-quarters of an hour.

There's a brief pause during which she assumes FRIDAY is checking with Pepper to confirm details. "Miss Potts says that a breakfast buffet will be fully catered to her and Mr. Stark's suite at nine. Arrival at any time between now and ten is perfectly alright but you are cautioned that the earlier you arrive, the warmer and more plentiful the food will be."

This is said as though it's a direct quote from Pepper and Cassie smiles to herself and begins to get out of bed. "FRIDAY, please tell Pepper that I will be there as close to nine as I can be. If there are donuts, ask her to save me one."

"Of course Doctor Morgenstern," FRIDAY says efficiently. "Would you like me to turn on the shower for you?"

The fact that her home is run by a robot with the power to pre-heat her shower could be creepy. This could be the very beginning of a horror or science fiction movie. In fact she's pretty sure that movie already exists in several different formats. On the other hand, the ability to roll out of bed and walk straight in to a hot shower could be seen as a definitive job perk depending on the perspective you chose to view it from.

Cassie stands and opens a drawer to pull out some clothes. "You might as well," she says. "Thank you FRIDAY."

The AI lets her now that it's signed off by making a cheerfully animatronic noise and Cassie hears the rush of water pouring from the shower head as she makes her way in to the bathroom. There are several towels ready and folded over the towel rack. A brief tough tells her that they're already warm and Cassie can't help but smile at the realization that the presence of the towels means that Steve must have thought ahead and put them out for her.

Some couples can become overly co-dependent and Cassie knows this. She knows that that's the point where most relationships begin to fail. She also knows that she can exist perfectly happily on her own as a person and in healthy relationships, that's how things work. What she's only learned recently is the the best part about a relationship is having someone around who thinks about the tiny things that might make your life easier and just does them because they know it'll make you happy.

Love isn't always shown in huge gestures.

Sometimes it's a gesture as simple as warm towels and making sure you can sleep as late as possible.

There's no way to prove this, but Cassie, as a medical professional, is just about ready to swear straight up and down that there are magical healing and restorative powers attached to the taking of a hot shower. After twenty minutes under a hot spray her muscles are visibly relaxed after the flight from yesterday, the slightly grungy feeling go travel is gone from her skin, and she's as fully awake as she can possibly be before food and some kind of caffeine. And Cassie has no godly relationship to Poseidon.

She dries off and after checking the time again she takes the extra ten minutes necessary to blow dry her hair a little. It's too long to get completely dried out, but at least this way she won't show up at breakfast with all of her friends looking like she has a mat of blonde yarn shooting out of her scalp. Of course, Reyna and Meg have both definitely seen her looking worse and she's fought and trained with Natasha and Wanda.

In the end she arrives on the floor completely reserved for Tony and Pepper at five minutes after nine. If the gods are anywhere on her side this morning she's early enough for most of the food to be left. As ordered, her phone is in her pocket and loaded with all of the vacation photos.

This phone is also confiscated mere seconds after she goes through the door. This confiscation is carried out by Darcy Lewis who scurries away with it with a noise frighteningly close to a cackle. By straining her ears she can make out the other woman excitedly talking about how to hook up the phone to the big screen TV to run a vacation slide show.

Cassie seriously hopes Darcy never decides to be a super villain.

She makes her way over to Reyna who is standing beside a large array of breakfast foods. The other girl acknowledges her presence in her company for the first time in nearly a month with small nod. This is about as physically affectionate as Reyna likes to be in public so Cassie takes it for the enthusiastic greeting it probably is and considers herself hugged in a mental way.

That consideration becomes more certain when Reyna hands her a plate loaded with fresh fruit, bacon, and an apple cider donut. The plate is immediately followed up with a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon on top. The magnitude of the gesture is a better greeting right now than any hug.

Cassie grins and takes both the plate and the cup before sinking down on to one of the couches next to the coffee table. Reyna sits down across from her clutching a large mug of cafe con leche. Cassie takes a sip of her hot chocolate and makes an appreciative noise. "Oh thank you," she says once she's swallowed. Then she takes a bight of donut. "Wow. You really do consider me a friend."

Reyna shrugs. "Well you introduced me to my boyfriend. Plus you hooked me up with a job and a place to live. And there were those couple of times when you saved my life so I figured I'd do you the favor of making sure you ate something before the inquisition gets started."

"I think we're probably even on the life saving thing," Cassie says mildly, popping a grape in to her mouth.

An inclining of the head is the first response she gets and then Reyna leans forwards. "Fine. Hand me a bit of your bacon and we'll call it even."

Cassie proffers the requested breakfast meat and gets down to work on her plate. Pepper doesn't seem to have notices that she's in the room yet, but she's got a sneaking suspicion that once she does, talking will take priority over eating breakfast. And gods is she hungry right now after not eating for the last fourteen hours outside of a quick snack on the plane.

She spends a few moments looking down with her concentration on her plate and when she looks up again the couch around her has filled out considerably. Natasha and Wanda are across from her sitting next to Reyna. Apparently she's been teaching Reyna Russian for a while now. From what Cassie can gather, despite all the therapy and work they've done, Bucky still sometimes slips in to Russian and out of speaking English. Reyna is trying to learn how to follow through understanding the change over.

Meg is sitting next to Katya on the ground at the end of the coffee table contentedly tapping a flower vase in front of her to make the tulips inside change color. Katya is watching with a mesmerized expression as red blush seeps up along the petals as the previous buttery yellow recedes from full, to veins, and final out of existence. It's one of the first tricks she learned and one that a lot of the Demeter cabin uses when senior counselors are coming around to do cabin inspections.

Percy has multiple circuitous rants about why this strategy should count as cheating.

Pepper is seated in a high-backed arm chair next to her and at the head of the table. Normally, Pepper looks efficient and put together but a very little bit harried and exasperated. For the moment, she's calmly sipping from a cup of green tea which from a new mother and CEO, Cassie considers to be a very brave choice.

The seat on Cassie's other side is occupied by Dr. Jane Foster. She's perched cross legged beside her wither back to the arm of the chair. On her lap is a plate of pastry piled up to what looks to her to be a godly sized portion of food. The size of her coffee mug terrifies Cassie on a deeply instinctual level.

"Hey," Jane greets, talking with a mouthful of sugary breakfast food. "Did you have a nice vacation with Steve?"

Cassie smiles back at her. "Yeah it was amazing." She gestures somewhere in to the room behind her which is, to the best of her knowledge, the direction that Darcy vanished in to with her phone. "Darcy confiscated my phone to get proof. Weirdly enough, she didn't ask for my password. Should I be worried about that?"

Jane waves her hands, scattering flakes of her pastry and nearly spilling her coffee. "It'll be fine. She's good with tech. Either she'll figure out how to guess your password, manage to get around it, or come ask for help. Darcy's stubborn but she knows when she's beat." Jane pauses and considers. "Though she's also really good at swimming off the deep end when she has to."

Frankly, Cassie isn't sure weather that statement makes her feel better or worse. The idea that Darcy might be able to crack Olympian technology is highly disconcerting. Thank the gods she has yet to meet a monster with any degree of technological know-how. The day the demons figure out how to actually use the internet is the day every single demigod on the face of the planet is going to need to find a nice big rock to hide under.

Instead of pursuing the topic Cassie shakes the thought away and examines Jane's plate more closely. "Are those homemade pop tarts? I didn't think that was a recipe that the public could even access."

The astrophysicist frowns and closely examines her breakfast. "Technically I think this is considered homemade toaster strudel. Darcy found the recipe and gave it to Pepper's chef when she first floated the idea of us all getting together for breakfast. Plus she pinned it to the refrigerator. She's convinced I can't cook and forget to eat, which, you know, isn't wrong."

Cassie holds up her mug and clinks it against hers in toast. "You're not the only one. Though I have to say, living with someone who eats five major meals a day has helped a lot with making sure I get at least two of them."

"Yes," Jane says, brandishing her breakfast. "But the real question is, can you make toast without burning it?"

Her plate is empty now so Cassie sets it to the side. "I will admit that I'm capable of that. Besides," she holds out a hand and reaches for a bit of her power to make her palm glow with heat. "This makes fires a little easier to put out. Steve still does a lot of the cooking though. He says he like the variety."

"How'd you do that?" Pepper asks, interrupting their conversation.

For a split second, Cassie is left wondering what Pepper's referring to. Then she realizes that her palm is still glowing. In her distraction, the energy output has ticked up, and now thin shimmers of heat distortion are visibly discernible as they ripple outwards from her skin. The light and heat both vanish as Cassie clenches her fist. She hasn't used her powers in a while because she hasn't had to, but apparently the energy has built up and is looking for an outlet.

Now she turns to answer Pepper's question, and when she does, she speaks seriously. Normally she wouldn't feel comfortable answering those kinds of questions in a room full of non-demigods, but the people in this room are her friends and she trusts them. Besides, Pepper isn't asking for herself. She's asking so that she can better learn how to take care of her new daughter. Cassie will do everything she can to help that happen.

The words she's going to end up using for her response actually make her laugh a little. "This is going to make it sound like I'm a solar powered human. Okay, so my father is the god of the sun which means that light and heat are both within his sphere of influence. Genetically I get the ability to use a little bit of that power. Mostly what I have power over is light, but light is energy and vice versa and you don't get light and energy without generating heat."

Pepper puts down her coffee cup and looks across at her new daughter who is now settling in for a late morning nap with her head on Meg's knees. "And the whole," she makes a vague all encompassing gesture. "Body on fire thing? Did you ever have to deal with that?"

Cassie shakes her head. "No. No not me. When I first grew in to the ability to use fire I was about, fourteen or fifteen, but I didn't tend to get more than a few unplanned sparks. I know Leo had problems with it. He burned down a machine shop when he was five. I'm more like a human flash-bang grenade than a flamethrower. I'll blind, deafen, or launch someone through a wall before I end up engulfing them in fire."

Meg sits forwards a little, being careful not to jostle Katya. "I once caused a minor earthquake," she volunteers. "Rare in a Demeter kid. Our powers are normally more low-level. Mom was proud. At least, I think that's what the fruit basket was about. Of course knowing my mom, it might have just been about her thinking I needed more fruits and vegetables in my diet. How she would know is another question entirely but-" she shrugs. "Anyway it was only a small one. Nico almost sunk part of Death Valley once." A realization seems to dawn on her. "Do you think it being called Death Valley helped?"

"Probably not," Cassie says honestly. "If it did I'd have a lot more power in Florida. That's called the Sunshine State."

Natasha raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you from Florida?"

Cassie sighs. "Technically yes, but I also technically haven't been back since my mom died. Well, apart from that one thing on the way to the Sea of Monsters. Also, to be fair that was less of a visit and more of a layover after escaping a monster infested cruise ship run by one of my former best friends." She sips her hot chocolate and then takes look around at a few of the faces staring at her. "My early teen years were very much a journey. I'm calling the hear and now the destination until I figure out where we're all ending up next."

A fervent "amen" is the response she gets from both Meg and Reyna.

The latter of those two relaxes back in to her seat. "Meanwhile I am secure in the knowledge that I have never in my life caused any kind of natural disaster."

"And we in the camp of those demigods whose parents happened to bless them with world collapsing capabilities salute your exclusion from that particular club," Meg says cheerfully.

Natasha frowns over at her slightly. "I wouldn't have thought either of you would have really world collapsing capabilities on an environmental scale." She inclines her head towards Meg. "I could see you causing a famine of some kind. Maybe a bumper crop or low level seismic event." Next she turns to Cassie. "I don't know how you could end the world. Localized droughts or the prompting of a wild fire in Nevada maybe."

Jane, now finished with her breakfast puts her plate down and moves along to her coffee. "Do you just spend time thinking about how your friends could end the world?"

Nat shrugs. "Clint and I spend a whole lot of time sitting somewhere waiting for something to happen. We've got to talk about something to kill the time. Besides after Ultron it seemed like building up some contingencies might be a good idea." She turns back to Cassie. "So? How would you do it?"

Cassie slowly sets down her mug and folds her hands in her lap, staring down at her fingers. "I couldn't really," she says slowly. "Not ending the world. Reyna could lead a coup without much effort and that's be a bigger global issue. Jason could knock out global power in a week if he was willing to do it. Percy could stand in Luisiana or anywhere on the coast or below sea level and wash out half of the global population. If Nico or Hazel were willing to give their lives to funnel the power they could probably actually reach in to the mantle of the Earth and crack it open."

She gestures over to Jane. "Thor could make the world go dark. Put us back in the dark ages and launch the kind of flood people build arcs for. If a few of his friends decided to help we'd be toast. If any of our parents decided to kick in we'd all be deciding which of the afterlife's we're going to end up in. Banner could rampage, any one with political know-how, access, and assassination capabilities could end the world as we know it."

"Oh you could totally do it," Meg says with a snort. "Hades, you'd do it more effectively than anyone else."

Immediately all eyes fall to her and Cassie sighs, twisting her fingers together and then untwisting them before answering. "Contagion," she says. "Plague. It's another aspect of my father's power. If I were going to end the world I'd stand in JFK and Heathrow airport and unleash a warped and as yet untreatable strain of something nasty. Smallpox or meningitis. Maybe black lung. It would incubate, manifest slowly, and be completely untreatable by anybody except me. By ninety-six hours in, up to twenty-five percent of the world's population could be infected or dead. Give me two weeks and unless I stop it, the Black Death looks like a cold. Wait a month and a lot of the world population is dead. Everyone except the people I want saved."

No one is laughing now and Cassie bights her lip before reaching out and taking another grape. "Anyway that's how I'd do it. Not a natural disaster. Just a human epidemic that nobody can stop. Nobody but me." She shrugs. "That's actually how the Black Death happened. A long, long time ago. One of my elder French half-siblings thought it'd make a shortcut out of the Hundred Years' War. They kind of miscalculated the fallout. Another of my siblings got our father to intervene on the side of the English and other Europeans. The gods had a soft spot for England for a while."

The silence hangs in the space for a moment. Then Darcy breaks it as she appears next to them holding a mimosa. "Sooooooo... What you're saying is that, out of all of the demigods and Avengers I've met, you're the one I need to be afraid of." She nods decisively. "I'm about to dedicate a whole lot of time to staying on your good side. Know that. Accept it. Think of me fondly." With that she also hands Cassie her phone back. "That's all in Greek by the way. I hit likely buttons until pictures started showing up on screen. I think your phone likes me. Does your phone make judgements? Is it like Thor's hammer with less Zap?"

Natasha is still looking at her intently. "The other demigod scenarios you described would also be calamitous, just more imminently manageable. And they would be insulated one time events. You said each of the others would have to be willing to die to pull it off. Would you have to die for what you described."

"No," Cassie admits. Because for fuck's sake there's no point in trying to beat around the bush now. She's just admitted that it's within her capabilities to create a world ending super epidemic. "At minimum, I bend basic power to emit a single warped viral strain in a very crowded place. Like I said, airport. It'd knock out my power reserves for a few days. Then I'd be fine. If I wanted to end life on Earth, I could do it and walk away. On the other hand, if anyone else on the planet launched a disease, I'm the CDC's best single shot at an impossible group cure. I'd have to do it with magic, but I could fix it."

"That thing you did with the hay fever that one time was cool," Meg says with a nod.

Cassie slips her phone in to the pocket of her jeans and then decides that as long as she's going full disclosure she's going the whole way. "Interestingly, if we're talking about what I could do to someone one-on-one, the options are a bit more varied. Most music is based on a rhythm and so is the body, which is medical. That intersection means I can do some things with heartbeats. I could speed one up until the heart exploded or possibly stop it completely. I could also freeze respiration. Possibly I could give a person cancer through solar radiation, or overloading their cells with energy. In fact, all of this is theoretical because I have _never once_ tried it."

Jane takes a swig of coffee. "I've met some Norse dark elves," she says. "I can see how it would be hard to try to give them cancer or something. If that's most of what you deal with I see how some sunlight, fire, or sonic boom would be more helpful." She sips again and then turns to the demigods in the room. "Odin called me a goat once. Is that normal godly behavior?"

"Well..." Reyna says considering. "No one attempted to smite you. So actually no. I'd say that was a step up from typical godly behavior when confronted with a mortal romantic partner for someone in their cohort."

"They probably thought the dark energy I was carrying around would kill me first," Jane decides. "It's been two years and I still don't know what all that stuff might have done to me." She turns and faces Cassie. "Any thoughts?"

Cassie considers and mentally reviews everything in Jane's medical files. "Everything in your physical seemed normal. I don't pick up any weird or dangerous vibes from you with magic. Of course, given that power emits from me, I might be getting interference from the source. If you want, I can try getting deeper in to it. Most mortals don't survive prolonged contact with godly power."

Jane raises her eyebrows. "Well now I feel special."

"You probably should," Meg says seriously. "Thor is the only god I have ever heard of across four active pantheons of supernatural beings who has decided to actually commit time to staying on Earth with a mortal being. He commits time to helping you. He cares about what's important to you. Thor protects your loved ones and has godly friends of his help out with it. He eats pop tarts and blue raspberry lollipops because you like them. He worries about weather you've eaten and lives in your house here in the mortal realm on Earth most of the time."

Reyna inclines her head. "She's got a point. My mother was a patron goddess for my family for centuries before she ever actually graced my father with her presence and two children. Then she never came back. Most demigods don't even meet their godly parents until they're in their early teens. Most of the time, gods hang out for something like a year, and then they bail. If they even stay that long."

"Any advice?" Jane asks archly, looking like she isn't sure she really wants an answer.

Cassie decides to give her one anyway because so far it's been a morning for honesty. "Don't have any kids," she blurts out. "Seriously that's my advice. Be really freaking careful about any kids unless you know for sure that you would be okay with eventually raising it on your own because that is a highly realistic possibility. In fact, according to the statistics I have, it's a probability not a possibility. And definitely don't until I figure out what happened with the Dark Elf thing."

Jane has flushed bright pink but she still purses her lips and nods. "Noted. Thank you for the honesty. All three of you. I wasn't sure if it was a subject any of you were okay talking about."

The slideshow of Cassie's vacation pictures has started now and views of the United Kingdom are now sliding past on the television screen.

"Who else are you going to ask?" Reyna asks, not without humor. "Use whatever resources you've got. We're what there is. Personally I'm kind of terrified about how any kids of mine would turn out."

"Nice view!" Pepper says enthusiastically of King Arthur's castle. "Seriously gorgeous. Meanwhile yeah. What do part demigod kids turn out like? Asking as a potential eventual grandmother."

Cassie figures that question is probably on her too. "The short version? Lower power levels, higher life expectancy. Some diluted godly power comes through along with the ability to look through the Mist. Monsters probably steer clear. The child of two demigods would get some combination of powers from both sides, like any other DNA Punnet square. A demigod child with a god has only happened once, and that's me."

Natasha grins at Cassie and Reyna somewhat devilishly. "And the child of a demigod and a super soldier?"

Reyna and Cassie exchange a look. More accurately, Cassie tries to exchange a look with Reyna and finds that her friend seems to suddenly think that the coffee table is really interesting. Cassie looks down to check. It's really not.

She takes a deep breath. "That's unknown," she says, trying to ignore the fact that her face is heating up and probably looks flushed. "It's never happened before. As far as we know, there are no part super soldier children. It's possible the serum changed Steve and Bucky's DNA, but they certainly got different strands."

Now that they're talking about some of the science involved she's got a little more distance from the part of this that is about her personal life. The result of that is that she's a bit more comfortable with her topic. "A lot of the serum stuff is a blank space. No one knows why Steve and Bucky survived when no one else did. We don't know why Steve is still stronger and faster than Bucky in tests or how Bucky couldn't tell he'd been given the serum when it first happened. Gods, we don't even know why Steve grew ten inches when Bucky didn't. It's possible a super soldier baby would be completely normal. It's also possible it'd pulverize the ribs of it's mother."

"In which case, the woman who can heal from anything would be a good choice," Pepper says. "From a practical stand point that is. Not that either of you have talked about it with your respective boyfriends or even ever want kids. I wasn't even sure I wanted kids until Tony called me and said he was brining home a daughter." With that she stands and goes over to pick Katya up, settling the little girl in her lap. "Enough about magic and contagions for the day," she decides. "Let's look at vacation pictures now."

So that's what they do. They watch the slideshow and Cassie gives narration for each one.

In her head, she's wondering about a million things she hasn't actually thought about before.

Wow...

The future is a great big freaking tackle store of worms isn't it?

 **A/N: So there it is. It's kind of a plot filling chapter because I need to establish the new relationship balances going forwards before tackling the events of Civil War. Also, I wanted to bring up the fact that all of these characters are in at least their mid/late twenties or early thirties and in committed relationships. I wanted the conversations they had to reflect that which means talking about long term planning and personal progress along with decisions about what they want their family dynamics to be. Also, I was thinking about what Cassie might be capable of and that's what I came up with. Kinda scary right? Any way, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer: Nope. Not mine. I'm just borrowing anything you recognize for a little bit of fun.**

Breakfast, lunch, brunch, whatever the appropriate term for the meal they just ate within the time period they just ate it in concludes on a pretty high note. Everyone leaves having eaten probably too much of the gourmet catered food. Coincidentally, Cassie's finally figured out one of the best things to ever be shipped out of Connecticut.

Donuts.

Farm fresh donuts.

Cassie doesn't know exactly what goes in to the coconut ones, but she can only assume that one of the ingredients must be crack. She knows some foods effect the human brain the same way that crack does, oreos to name one. That is the only explanation she can possibly see for why no one at the meal ate any fewer than three of them, including Wanda who generally eats like a bird.

Speaking of Wanda, the girl walks up beside her and taps her on the arm. "Could we talk?"

The request surprises her a little, but she recovers quickly. After all, once you've lived your life being twenty-four seven aware of three hundred and sixty degrees of possible danger, you learned to get over the unexpected pretty damn fast. She nods and takes a look around the dispersing group before indicating to Wanda that she should come with her.

Wanda had been quiet while everyone had sat talking together, even when the subject had been the likelihood of Cassie turning super villain and ending life as they knew it. She'd even refrained from talking when the awkwardness levels had gotten blown off of the charts when Pepper had asked about super soldier babies. And demigod babies. And hybrids there of.

Wow formal-informal group meals with the other women they know are incredibly full of landmines. Or just completely lacking embarrassment. Or tact. Whatever, they necessitate missing a conversational politeness filter.

Cassie thinks they might be more fun that way.

The point is, if Wanda wants to talk to her with no one else around it's probably personal. She's in a mind frame to understand the importance of someone else's sense of personal privacy having just suspended hers completely. Once upon a time, Cassie had been a fairly private person. Apparently those days have gone the way of the dodo bird.

She and Wanda hang back near one of the wide windows as the others disappear to their offices or apartments. For several moments the only sounds to be heard are the chattering of their friends and coworkers and the cheerful dinging of the elevator doors opening and shutting. Occasionally FRIDAY's voice joins the hubbub and Cassie lets the everyday sounds wash over her in a comforting lull.

Reyna gives her a questioning look when she sees Cassie hanging back near Wanda. Her intelligent eyes flick back and forth between them and Cassie gives her a little wave and a smile. Some of the confusion clears and Reyna allows Meg to pull her along in to the elevator with Pepper. Evidently, Reyna's job coordinating the press in all their rabid hordes has been fairly time consuming and complex lately.

The hallway falls silent, indicating that they have privacy now, but Wanda still doesn't speak. Since this conversation isn't really "her party" so to speak, she remains quiet and leans against the window frame. The sun is shining out there still, and the warmth of it across her face has always been one of her favorite sensations as it fights against the blasts of cold from the air conditioner.

Eventually Wanda speaks. "It is funny," she says. "Before a few months ago I had never even been in a building this high. Now I live in one. Pietro and I have had to keep the blinds shut for a while because I felt dizzy when I looked down."

"Would you like to move away from the window?" Cassie offers. She's enjoying the sunshine, but not to the extent that she's willing to handle the fall out, or rather throw up, that comes from someone else's nausea.

Wanda shakes her head and instead of walking away, simply sits down on the carpet with her back to the view. She folds her knees and rests her chin on top off them. Cassie hesitates for a moment and then sits down about a foot away with her shoulder braced against the window. For a moment she wonders if she should feel guilty about smudging the glass, but then she figures if any building on the planet has a dedicated cleaning staff capable of handling things like that, it's this one.

To kill some of the dead time that's apparently going to be involved in this conversation, Cassie flips through her mental catalogue of herbal remedies. She still doesn't know exactly how drugs might interact in Wanda's system so she's been erring on the side of all natural being better since she first started trying to work up a treatment profile. "Ginger," she says as she manages to put her finger on the answer. "Ginger. That's been proven to help wth motion sickness. I don't know if it works for vertigo, but it's just a plant so I don't think it would hurt to try."

The other woman gives her a small smile. "Thank you. I may try that. Health food stores are full of new options."

"They really are," Cassie acknowledges. "Farmers markets also have some great things. Steve likes going to them on weekends. You could come with us some time if you wanted.

Wanda winces. "I do not know about that." Cassie cocks her head, asking for an explanation if Wanda feels like giving her one. "The crowds," she says. "There are so many people all packed together. All of them are talking, and lying, and thinking, and feeling all at once and most of the time none of those match, even within one person. I can block it out, but if I do I have to block out everything. There's no working selection. It is like going deaf."

Cassie winces. "I'm sorry," she says, with every single ounce of sincerity she possesses. "I can hear and see more than the average person, but all of that is focused. It's an ability I have to concentrate to use with any level of accuracy. I can't imagine getting that range of feedback all the time with no way to control it."

She looks at her, the light turning her brown hair red. "I would have thought you did," she says. "I am sorry. I did not mean to intrude, but at times you broadcast what you are thinking, and at times you manage to block me out. I never know exactly what you think, but I have a certain sense of how your mind works. It is..." she pauses as she searches for a word. "Very busy."

The laugh that bubbles out of her throat isn't one she can help. "Yeah I guess it would be."

Wanda laughs with her and the smile changes her face, making her seem less nervous and less damaged. Mostly it makes her seem younger. "It is very interesting actually," she says. Pepper and Reyna, their minds are very organized. Meg is loud and fluttering like hummingbird wings. Steve is pounding and linear as a war drum. Sam is even and soothing. Bucky's mind is silent but all locked doors, full of things even he cannot see. Being in his mind is like walking along stairs and constantly worrying you will miss a step. Natasha plays chess always and Barton thinks like waves, layers upon layers of thought that go deeper and deeper in a way where you cannot see the bottom of things."

"Do i even want to ask what the inside of Tony's head is like?" Cassie asks with a grin. The conversation has turned light now so she's going to try to keep it that way. Besides she kind of wants to know about Tony and kind of doesn't. It's a 'slow down to see the car accident' kind of a feeling.

The answer surprises her though. Wanda actually stops and considers. "His mind, it is hard to track. Not because it is quiet because it is not. Stark does nothing quietly and that includes thinking. His mind moves too quickly for me. It is like- like a ping pong machine set at the speed Pietro moves at. I cannot see the connections between one idea and the next. But I know that he is very, very afraid for the people he loves. And I know that those people are all the ones who live on this floor, on this team. He is terrified of loss and he thinks he will lose everything. Now he has more to fear for, but also more to think of. Katya helps. She gives him a reason to think through things more than once."

Cassie pauses, letting that information sink in. A lot of what Wanda's just told her is what she sort of assumed might be true. Having it all confirmed for her by an honest to Zeus telepath is different.

She nods once to show she understands and then sits forwards, bracing her elbows on her knees. The change in gesture also helps to change the subject. "What does my brain sound like? You never said."

"It is difficult to completely explain," Wanda says. She holds out a hand and a tracery of glowing red light twists it's way in and out of her spread fingers. "I do not have to tell you that you think of many things all at once. The way you seem to take in information changes everything. There are a multitude of humming notes and levels all at once. I think- I think that music may be the best comparison. Sometimes when you are quiet there is a hum. When you are busy or feeling many things your thoughts almost emit an orchestra. But it is always music."

The words make Cassie blink in surprise. "But I can't play instruments," she says. "I have siblings that can, but that's not the ability I inherited. I got healing, and the manipulation of light and sound waves. Plus the world ending outbreak capabilities we talked about just now." A sentence she didn't think she'd ever say out loud. "Seriously, I don't even sing."

"No you don't," Wanda agrees. "But that doesn't mean that you can't. Besides, it is not about ability. It is just the only way I can think of to describe what echoes from you. There is no one else like me in the world. There are no categories for me to reference. I am left with words, and if being a telepath has taught me anything it is that words are not always the most effective means of communication."

Cassie manages another smile and files this conversation away as something to go over more carefully later. She'll also probably tell Steve once she has it sorted out in her head. It's the kind of thing he'd be interested to hear. Hopefully her brain will log all the salient details.

Once she has all of that worked out she reaches out and gently taps the back of Wanda's hand. "Was this what you wanted to talk about?" she asks. "Because it's fine if it is. I'll pick up some ginger for you next time I'm out or order it online. I have some in roads at EBay. Or I can ask Meg to just grow you some. Stark has funded a really amazing greenhouse for her at this point. And it's amazing what you've told me about how everyone's minds work. Maybe you could look in to taking some psychology classes?"

Wanda smiles again and that makes it twice inside of ten minutes which Cassie thinks might be a record. "I may do that once we are settled in the new compound. Maybe it would be good for me to get out in to a classroom with some people in it. Someplace with academics who will think quietly and calmly." The trail of red coalesces in her palm and vanishes as Wanda closes her fingers. "I wanted to talk with you because I know that my brother is worried. He knows that I feel overwhelmed but he worries that I am lonely too."

"Are you?" Cassie asks. "Lonely?"

The other girl shrugs. "I do not think so. Not with all of you here near me. I have never had so many friends and new family members as I do now. And their is everyone working downstairs. There is a pleasant hum. Like a bee hive. I do not feel cut off, but I feel as though I cannot go out in to the rest of the world. I do not really know what I thought you might do, but you have helped Mr. Barnes and Doctor Banner and Steve very much."

Cassie hums slightly as she contemplates what to do. "Maybe you could try some kind of exposure therapy?" she suggests. "It's a pretty common psychological tool from what I can tell. You could go to a quieter spot in the city like one of the museums with a friend here who thinks quietly or you find reassuring. You could go for a few hours and slowly work your way in to more crowded places. Maybe it would let you work your way in to spending time in crowds by yourself without shutting everything out to deal with it." She shrugs again. "I don't know. Like you said, we haven't got a roadmap here."

Wanda seems to consider something and then speaks all in a rush. "Would you come with me? I would like to see the MoMa and Pietro is not patient enough for a museum."

"Of course," Cassie says, actually pleased to be asked. She doesn't have very much practice in making new friends. It's not something she has to do all that often. "Maybe we could go on Thursday? I don't have appointments made for the week yet since I just got back yesterday. No missions means no one will be in danger of bleeding to death. I'd say we could go at the weekend but the crowds would probably be worse."

Wanda stands and Cassie does too, brushing her palms together. Before she can really balance herself Wanda leans forwards and gives her a hug. Cassie stands stunned for a moment before hugging her back. Human contact is important and healthy and if Wanda is willing to initiate it then those gestures should be encouraged. "Thank you," she says.

Cassie nods and grins. "Of course. It'll be fun. Just cross your fingers that nothing tries to kill me. It's happened to me in museums before, but recently I've had a better track record."

She frowns. "Death would be bad, yes."

"That's what I'm saying."

They take the elevator together and Cassie waves goodbye when she gets off at the floor her office is based in. As long as she's functional and avoiding the after effects of jet lag she figures she might as well get some work done. Besides, Steve is likely still going to be stuck in his meeting with Tony for the planning and fine-tuning of their new facility, and post-Ultron repair to their medical files is still ongoing.

Ongoing, time consuming, and pretty much mind numbing.

Thank the gods it's also almost over.

In fact, Cassie manages to do the final pieces three hours after getting to work. It's a relief to not have to worry about redoing all of the old papers any longer, but by the time she's done the letters are swimming off the page. The great and mysterious forces of dyslexia have apparently decided that now is the time to strike as vengeance for the reading and writing she's been doing lately.

The rest of the week is now free for her to get back to running physicals and working towards helping Banner and Bucky. She's also going to need to dedicate some time towards working out a selection of drug-free natural medications that Wanda will be able to take. Pietro needs a different chemical cocktail too because his system burns through everything that currently exists too quickly for it to actually work.

If things go wrong with Stark, she's seriously considering leaving and starting a specialized pharmaceutical company. She thinks she could pull it off by now. Seriously, with the right marketing she'd make a killing.

Back up plans are good to have, okay? Even if she never wants or needs to use them.

She's jolted out of her work induced haze and her mist of blurring letters when Bucky interrupts by breaking through the door. "Umm..." she says, letting the single syllable place holder drag. "Hi? Is knocking something we're not doing anymore? Because in principle I'm okay with it, but I am dating your best and oldest friend and you are dating one of mine which means that in practice some things might get pretty awkward."

"What?" Bucky's eyebrows draw together in a frown. "Oh. Please like I haven't seen Steve naked. Who do you think helped his skinny ass do his steam inhalations in the winter when he had pneumonia? Besides, army. You see a whole lot of stuff you really wish you did't. Anyway get up. I need your help with something."

Cassie has enough blind faith in Bucky as her friend and Steve's right hand man to get up and allow him to usher her out the door. "What exactly am I helping you with? Because I have to believe that if someone was bleeding to death somewhere on the premises we'd be walking a little bit faster."

They reach the elevators and Bucky jabs the button several times and then stands back to wait for it to arrive. "No one is bleeding to death on the premises," he says in a singsong kind of voice that tells her he thinks the question is kind of amusing and a bit exasperating. "But there is a crucial window of opportunity now open to us and I have a feeling it'll be closing pretty soon."

"What kind of opportunity?" She asks the question warily because she has a lot of experience with being dragged in to things by friends with very mixed results. Like, 'holy shit Percy we can't risk drowning Staten Island!' as opposed to 'gods the sunset from the top of this mountain is amazing' mixed. Still, she steps in to the elevator ahead of Bucky and waits for him to tell FRIDAY which floor they're going to.

Once they're moving Bucky turns to her. "Okay this is the situation. The Department of Education wants Steve to do a set of health and fitness videos to use in schools. The thing is, Stark has bought and signed over everything involving Steve's likeness to Steve himself, so he's the one who gets to say yes or no. At the current moment his answer hinges on the outcome of a poker game."

Now it's Cassie's turn to frown. "So if he looses at a poker game he's going to have to do a whole bunch of Captain America educational videos. Fine. As long as he came up with the terms that's fine. Also highly amusing potentially. Where do I come in?"

Bucky grins mischievously. "Through the door. He can't do Cap Mode around you and I know him better than anyone." He holds out a hand. "It will be hilarious for everyone and Steve agreed to the bet when Natasha brought it up so there's a pretty good chance he knows it to. Shake on it?"

Cassie hesitates a moment to think it over. On the one hand, deliberately distracting her boyfriend in the middle of a poker game isn't something she'd normally volunteer to do. On the other, Steve Rogers, the man who can factually barely lie to save his life, agreed to play Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, probably the best liar in the entire world, in a poker game. He had to have been prepared to lose.

"You're making money off of this?" she asks. Bucky doesn't respond but his grin widens. Cassie sighs. "I get twenty percent of the profits and another thirty goes to Steve's charity of choice."

"Done," he agrees.

The two of them shake hands and the elevator dings softly as the elevator arrives.

"You'll take pictures from the set?" he checks, almost addressing the ceiling as they step out of the elevator.

Cassie rolls her eyes and then arranges her own poker face. "Obviously. What am I, a heathen?"

That actually gets Bucky to chuckle as they make their way down the hall towards the team's new break room. "Well fifteen plus years of Irish Catholic nun provided education says yes, that is exactly what you, my amazing girlfriend, and all of your friends are."

She holds her hand out so that the scanner next to the door can analyze her prints. A glowing blue hologram of her palm appears projected right above the scanner plate and the laser moves to pinpoint her biometric indicators. "Point of differentiation," she says. "We are very technically, pagan, not heathen. There's a difference, and we spawn of the greco-roman pantheon care about it. Heathens are less classy."

Bucky nods. "Noted." He gestures to her. "After you."

Cassie steps through the door and pulls the tie out of her hair. If she's playing blonde distraction to her own boyfriend for the sake of widespread group amusement and charitable contributions, then she might as well bring the blonde. Besides, Steve has a thing about her hair.

Speaking of her boyfriend, he's sitting across a hastily erected card table from Natasha regarding his cards. He also has a huge pile of chips in front of him. Considering that Barton, Stark, and Pietro had both been playing as well, the fact that Steve's gotten this far and has won so much is pretty damn impressive. Being chronically underestimated in this field has probably helped.

"Hey," she says, leaning down and kissing him. He's clearly surprised at the gesture but melts in to it quickly. Cassie enjoy the kiss thoroughly before pulling back.

"Hi," he says back. "The planning meeting kind of went down hill."

Stark scoffs from his place behind the exceedingly well stocked team bar. "I think you mean improved Rogers."

Cassie institutes her general operating procedure when it comes to off-topic comments from Tony and instead grins at her boyfriend who is asking non-verbally why she's here. She nudges his arm out of the way and settles herself across his lap for a second, sneaking a shameless look at his cards. His hand is decent but not overly fantastic. He's been bluffing pretty well so far. Normally honest people make the most convincing liars.

Then she leans over to speak in to Steve's ear. "Why'm I here?" she posits, and Steve nods. "I'm supposed to be distracting you. Bucky thinks it'll be funny for you to do the educational commercials, and I think the bet he made is against Stark so the money he's making here is substantial. I negotiated a bunch of it going to charity."

She backs away to look at him and sees that Steve is wearing a somewhat exasperated smile. "I think you were probably not supposed to tell me that."

"Probably," she agrees. "Anyway, I've pulled your focus for at least two minutes. I'd say my work here is done."

He kisses her again, holding her against his chest tightly enough that she's definitely not moving until he feels like letting her. "Seems like me losing would benefit everyone but me. What do I get out of this point shaving?"

"Hmmmm..." she contemplates, tapping her fingers against her mouth. "I got twenty percent of Bucky's profits directed to us?"

He smiles a bit more and shakes his head in to her shoulder. "Anything else?"

Cassie represses a giggle as his hair brushes against her neck. She leans over and drops a kiss on top of his head. It's all she can reach right now so it'll have to be good enough. "I'm sure the two of us can think of something. We're very creative people. Why don't you give it some deep thought and get back to me later?"

Steve shakes his head but moves his arm to let her up and Cassie hops to her feet and grins to Natasha. The woman responds by raising a single eyebrow at her. It's the most reaction she'll get until the game is over so Cassie gets herself a snack and a bottle of water out of the team refrigerator and makes herself comfortable in an empty armchair. She doesn't know how long this will go for so she might as well be comfortable.

Clint swings down in to the seat across from her and kicks his feet up over one arm of it while leaning against the other. "I wanted to keep playing just to see if Cap really did have the cards, but Nat mentioned ditching the chips for dares so I figured I'd better bail out."

Tossing a blackberry in to her mouth, Cassie raises her eyebrows at him. "Spoken like a guy who knows what happens when they lose. Is this story time?"

He groans and rolls his head back against the other arm of the couch. "It went sooooooo badly. I had a full house! I thought it would be fine. Then what does she turn up with?"

"Straight flush?" Cassie guesses. Poker isn't her particular game. Mercury has less to do with gambling than Hermes does, but she did go through childhood with a best friend in the Hermes Cabin. She knows her card games and how to rank her poker hands.

Barton gestures with one hand to indicate she's right and then returns to addressing the ceiling. "Yeah. So before we've both placed bets already and we're out of chips when Nat suggests we raise again. I know we're in dangerous territory, but like I said, I'm looking at a good hand. So I say sure, and we show up. Next thing I know, she's handing me a cover I.D and dossier and I'm working for a completely different government agency under a false name."

Cassie grins. Hearing this story is a highlight of her day. Barton hardly ever talks about his personal life, so she's going to enjoy this while it lasts. "Oh that has to be a felony," she says. "Did Fury pull the plug on you when he found out?"

"No," Barton mutters. "That's what makes the story so much worse. When Fury figured out how much intel I was gathering by working there he made me stay! I ended up disavowed, trapped in a sandstorm, free falling towards a spinning fan of death relying on a magnet to save me, and preventing nuclear war. Because the mission was such a success, SHIELD wouldn't let me leave. I ended up working for two separate covert agencies with two identities at once long term for _five years._ "

The almost spit-take Cassie barely manages to control is epic on a whole new level. "Five years?!"

"Actually that dare is still ongoing," Natasha calls over from the table. She and Steve are both standing up now so the game must be over. Nat is smiling like a cat who ate the canary and the cream together. Steve looks equal parts exasperated and amused so the game must have ended exactly the way that everyone expected it to. "He files ongoing paperwork, shows up for some missions, overseas field operations, and collects a paycheck." Nat smiles at whatever her expression looks like so it must be something to see. "I fully admit that it's one of my better works."

Cassie really doesn't know what to say about that so she just blinks and mentally tries to work out how on earth that income tax paperwork can possibly be filed or organized. The resulting mental mess threatens to give her a headache so she gives up and finishes her blackberries while Steve and Nat clean up their card game. Where the table came from in the first place, she has absolutely no idea.

And most of her family tree can summon furniture with literally a snap of their fingers. Maybe Thor was involved here? No, that can't be it. Jane mentioned earlier that he was busy with some Asgardian thing with too many vowels.

When that's done Steve walks over and extends a hand to pull her up and out of her seat. She goes with the motion and her feat leave the ground for a moment before she regains balance. An interesting feature of this relationship is the amount of times when that is actually true. She supposes it's the most convenient way around the height differential. The other options are carrying a step stool or Steve bending over a lot.

"What do you say to take out for dinner?" he asks. "I'm thinking Chinese?"

Cassie shows him a double thumbs up. "I am one million percent in favor. I will order the entire menu for you and clear space in the fridge. You are in charge of ice cream. We can divide and concur at the elevators."

They follow the plan she outlines and over dinner they fill each other in on their days. It's a nice reminder that even when they aren't separated from where they work and all of their friends, they can still be a private couple. They can still go to work, come home, share what they've thought about and done for the day, eat dinner together, and go to bed. It's a major piece of the normalcy and security that neither of them could manage to find for the majority of their lives.

"So I should probably mention," Cassie says after swallowing a mouthful of noodles. "And generally I wouldn't bring this up because there's literally no chance it'll ever be relevant, but it came up at brunch so I figured I might as well." She lays down her chop sticks and meets hie eyes. "I could, if I felt like it, restart the Black Death. Just putting that out there."

Steve's actually further through his food than she is but that's to be expected with his metabolism. "I thought that might be possible," Steve says, calmly soaking a dumpling in soy sauce. She gives him a look which clearly asks for an explanation. "I did a lot of reading about mythology when you first told me about your dad. And no offense to him, I don't want to be smited or turned in to a frog, but a lot of the stories are dark."

"Oh believe me, I am fully aware of that," Cassie says. "Seriously, my teacher Chiron makes every camper read and learn pretty much every story there is in case any of the elements pop back up on us and try to play out all over again. Plus there's a lot of ancient grudge holding nasties ready to spring out of thin air and murder us because of different things our parents have done. Seriously, reading the stories is worse than the battle drills."

Steve gets up and pours them both water before sitting back down. "As someone who has done and lived through extensive battle drills, I can't really see how that's possible."

Cassie brandishes a chop stick to emphasize her point. "Ahhh, but you, oh boyfriend mine, are forgetting the rampant dyslexia rate amongst godly kids. Extensive reading and verb conjugation is torture. Like in the literal sense, Camp Jupiter makes you conjugate Latin verbs as a punishment if you're late for assembly. Or they grow you in to the Little Tiber stuffed in to a sack of weasels. Besides, your forgetting just how many of the ancient stories about the gods involve them popping down to Earth to produce our more famous elder siblings."

The expression Steve's face bends in to tells her he's only just grasped exactly how bad the subject matter actually is when you're trapped knowing that all of it is real. "I copy," he says, spreading his hands. "I lived with Bucky for a bit and ended up knowing more about his- well, let's call it social schedule, than I ever wanted to. And he was my best friend. Having to read about your dad's..."

He doesn't seem to know what to say so Cassie makes a suggestion. "Extracurricular activities? It's the phrase I use in my head when I'm trying to avoid actually thinking about it too hard."

"We'll go with that then."

Cassie cracks open a fortune cookie and swallows half of it. "Honestly I'm just glad Apollo and Mercury never got themselves immortal wives. That adds a whole separate level of awkward and immortal grudge holding and malice. You heard what happened with Jason. And the one time Percy met his step-mom and an immortal half-sibling his dad's kingdom was under siege and Triton implied he would really enjoy murdering him. At least Apollo's only godly children are the patron gods of medicine, housekeeping, and some spears."

Steve frowns. "Isn't that Scylla whirlpool spitting thing related to you too?"

With a groan Cassie drops her head on to the table. "Yes she is," Cassie mutters. "I met her once when I was fourteen and I have been working very hard since then to forget all about it."

She can hear the screech of Steve pushing his chair back as he comes around the table to stand behind her and kiss her shoulder. "Sorry. I'll consider it a blacked-out subject. We'll just forget that that piece of information exists."

"See that's a plan. A plan that I approve of," she says, straightening up and turning to catch his lips with hers. "And because you are an amazing boyfriend and I am an equally amazing boyfriend, the pictures that I promised Bucky I would take at the video filming will be on a handy dandy computer program cultivated by some of my cousins to delete immediately if he tries to send them anywhere."

"Very thoughtful," Steve murmurs against her mouth.

From there the kiss spirals, and any and all conversation is pretty much abandoned for the rest of the night.

The rest of the week passes in a happy pattern and on Thursday Cassie meets up with Wanda in the front lobby of the building. Somehow Tony's caught wind of their plans (possibly that's his superpower: always knowing pretty much everything) so Happy is waiting for them outside on the curb with a private car and the paparazzi has been cleared and being held back by a mix of private security and the police.

Wanda joins her a few minutes after their set meeting time wearing a pair of frayed jeans and a maroon sweatshirt she thinks might be borrowed from Meg if the shade of red is any indication. She makes a mental note to introduce Wanda to the joys of online shopping with her new Avenger's sized bank account sooner rather than later. Even if she's shy about getting out and going shopping in person, the girl deserves some new clothes after helping save the world.

It's like rule one of understanding the Aphrodite Cabin. Which is something Cassie actually has to do given her friendship with Pepper. Besides, having Aphrodite against you never works out well. Lesson one from most of Greco-Roman mythology. Those people get turned in to hyenas or drowning or something.

And there was the thing with the Trojan War.

Which they don't talk about.

Ever.

At any costs.

On the other hand, they're both probably less likely to be recognized hanging out together like. As they've established, Wanda doesn't go out in public very much, and she's new enough to Avenging that the only public photos of her that exist are official releases or mid battle shots. The press's interest in Cassie declines hugely when she's out and about without Steve. She and Wanda together wearing casual clothes will probably blend with very little trouble.

"Hi," she greats. "I didn't tell Tony, but I did tell Steve who seems to have told Tony that we were doing this today. He, or maybe Pepper, sent Happy to drive us so we don't need to take a cab."

Wanda looks startled for a second and then shakes her head. "I am still not used to things like this. It is strange to have someone I used to blame for so much as a friend. For years I blamed Stark for killing my parents and destroying my home. Now, he has welcomed my brother and I with open arms, and sends his private driver to take me to art museums."

"I get it," Cassie agrees as the two of them open the doors and step out on to the sidewalk. "Early on it was just me and my mom, then I was functionally homeless for a while before moving in to a cabin with nearly a half-dozen siblings. I lived in tiny apartments and worked ridiculous shifts to pay for what my school scholarships didn't cover so I wouldn't get buried in debt. Until moving here, the nicest place I'd ever lived in was an apartment in D.C. Now I live in one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in New York and my boyfriend is known to the public as Captain America.

She gives Wanda a sympathetic expression as they reach the car and greats Happy as the man opens the door for them. "Trust me, it gets easier to comprehend. You might have to pinch yourself a couple times, but you'll get used to it."

Wanda climbs in after her and Happy shuts the door. "It is my opinion after being in people's minds, that it is possible for most people to get used to almost anything. Sometimes I wonder if that is a good thing."

Cassie shrugs. "I've been brushing up on my psychology, but I don't feel qualified to try to answer that question. Personally, my life as been pretty 'adapt or die' so far. And I'm still alive so... I guess I kind of have to stay in favor of changing to survive your circumstances. Being against it would feel pretty hypocritical."

"I cannot disagree with that," Wanda agrees. "I am alive because of changing too. And the changes are ones I chose to make."

The memory of a medical study she had read a long time ago drifts to the forefront of Cassie's mind. "I read a paper once," she says. "While I was in school. I don't remember the exact text because it was a little wile ago, but the general idea was that people aren't evolving anymore. Technology and medical science means that most people are living no matter their physical fitness or genetic capabilities. Everyone is getting to pass on their genes so none of the faulty ones are being eliminated. Everyone lives, so no one improves or changes across generations."

"What would evolution even look like to someone like you?"

She throws up her hands. "I mean it literally when I say that the gods only know."

Traffic is minimal for the day so they arrive at the museum not long after that and head inside. Happy checks that Cassie has his phone number and says to call it or text when they're ready to leave again. Then they go in and get a little button in exchange for their admission fee. There are people drifting through the building but none of them look at either of them twice.

It's a strange museum visit, and Cassie can say this with impunity because since this summer she has actually had normal ones. She's done museum trips that were abruptly cut short by things popping out of the walls wanting to kill her and she's done trips where in she actually got to look at and learn about art. This trip with Wanda is not either of those.

Instead, Wanda finds a gallery with a bench in it and sits down. She's facing a painting but Cassie doesn't think she's really seeing it. A closer inspection shows Cassie that her eyes have taken on the somewhat vacant look of someone thinking about something else. Apparently, this is what it looks like when Wanda is just sitting and listening to what people are thinking and feeling all around her.

Cassie asks if Wanda needs her to do anything and the other girl tells her to just stay relatively close and try to think of calm things. It's on the tip of her tongue to make a joke about Peter Pan and thinking happy thoughts but she doesn't do it. Instead, she kills some time wandering through a few rooms and studying the artwork around her. Then instead of venturing farther she turns to people watching.

When she and Annabeth had been younger, they would sometimes look at all of the perfectly ordinary people around them and make up stories about what their lives must be like. It had killed time and kept them from getting board. Sometimes Luke or Thalia would play the game with them. It's something she does now and thinks that maybe when the day is over, she'll be able to ask Wanda if any of her guesses had been correct.

At about lunch time she goes back to find Wanda and taps her on the shoulder. "Ready to get some lunch? There's a decent cafeteria downstairs. I have had the lentil soup before and in my experience it is unmatched. Which is surprising when you consider it's museum cafeteria food."

Wanda blinks with the 're-entering the atmosphere' look that Cassie normally sees on Steve's face when he's been busy sketching for a while, or the way her brother Austin looks after a morning devoted to trumpet practice. "I am... starving actually." She tilts her head sideways like she's listening to something through the floor and then grins. "And according to the head chef, a fresh pot of the very soup you mentioned is about to be served."

Cassie holds out a hand and hauls Wanda up behind her. "Come on," she says. "It'll go quickly and there is a school group on the premises."

"Yes there is and they are all very hungry," Wanda agrees, hurrying along next to her. "There is also a loaf of fresh bread which we should be able to smell as we hit the landing according to the thoughts of the security guard near the main gallery on the ground level."

They make it down to the cafeteria before huge crowds can actually form and order and procure food quickly. Both the soup and the bread are fresh and hot and just as good as Cassie remembered them being when she visited the museum during a Camp Half-Blood trip when she was thirteen. Come to think of it, that was the same trip during which Luke had stolen the Lightning Bolt and the Helm of Darkness.

It had been a happy trip. The last prophecy free year she had experienced. It will live fondly in her memory.

"Whatever you are thinking of, it is good," Wanda comments, soaking up some of her broth with the last of her bread. "Don't worry, I'm not looking at your thoughts. It is just that you feel things strongly. It is part of why I wanted you to come with me. When you are happy and calm, the people around you normally feel happy and calm too. Even the ones who are not telepathic like me."

That takes Cassie a moment to absorb. She's never felt like an overly happy or aggressively positive person. She's just always tried to figure out a way to make the best of a situation, even if the situation clearly sucks. Thanks to Luke, she's seen first hand what happens when you let the worst swallow you.

Her job has always been the medic, the healer. The perspective Wanda seems to have of her as the group optimist and ray of sunshine is new to her. She's not a gluey shinny person. She's the triage person. Her view of crises and team dynamics is to figure out what's most in danger of falling off or bleeding out and slapping a great big literal (or metaphorical) bandaid on it.

With a blink, she consigns the matter to her own ever changing mental pile of things she'll consider at some time that isn't now. It's an interesting pile. There are strata involved. Not unlike volcanic rock deposits. Lots of things go in to her pile. Her life is not generally convenient for extensive mental processing.

"I was thinking about a trip I took here back when I was a kid," she says. "My uh, my camp used to take us on trips once or twice a year to go see the city and visit Olympus. It was really the only time we were allowed outside the boundaries for anything other than quests, and only the older campers got to go on those. Gods-" She shakes her head and smiles ruefully. "My friend Annabeth and I, we used to be so jealous of the older campers when they got quests. We didn't really think about the fact that a lot of the kids who left didn't make it back. We just wanted to go. We wanted to do something amazing, something our parents would care about."

Wanda smiles. "Pietro and I had wonderful parents," she says. "Our mother ran a bakery. We always had pastries. The whole house smelled like cinnamon and butter all the time. Mama used to sneak me the first piece of a batch every time she made something and keep something back so that Pietro and Papa would not eat them all. Papa was a math teacher. He always helped us with homework at the kitchen table."

Cassie's own smile is a little sad but very honest. "They sound wonderful. I was only eight when my mom died, but I never doubted how much she loved me. And I guess my dad will never die, which is a different set of issues entirely. Though mostly on his end. My teach Chiron was more of a dad figure in my life really. But I think all the gods like it that way."

"Parents are not a common feature in our little group," Wanda observes.

They both take a moment to flip through their mental catalogue of friends. "Wow," Cassie says with a vague sense of surprise. "The only people I can think of in my immediate friend group with more than one parental figure to speak of are Annabeth and Percy. Everybody else is at one or less. Even Jane and Pepper have a deceased parent each and Darcy's parents are divorced. I guess technically Katya now has two parents."

"Katya is a lucky little girl," Wanda says. "A very, very, lucky girl. At least in this."

"I've always figured that the way luck works is that to have good luck, something bad has to happen, or almost happen, first," Cassie says. The fact that the godly embodiment of luck is some kind of relation of hers with a feast day she's celebrated before is one she leaves unspoken. Sometimes the brand of crazy that is particular to her life is best left out of conversation.

Wanda nods. "I like that. It is a very honest view. Now, I feel like I should see a little bit of the actual art here before we leave."

With a quick glance at the screen of her phone to check the time, Cassie nods. "Okay. That sounds good. It's one now so we could stay another hour or two. But for art I think we have to go back upstairs." She looks at Wanda in consideration. "Any suggestions on where to start."

She pauses to check and makes a face. "Not from here, but if we walk up the stairs slowly I will be able to tell which galleries are empty."

Cassie tosses the last of her bread in to her mouth before standing up and slinging her purse over her shoulder. "I think that that is an excellent use of telepathic abilities."

She has always believed that there is literally no point in having extraordinary powers if you can't occasionally use them for your own means. Otherwise it's just prophecies and a shorter life expectancy. Having some perks sometimes helps with the sting.

They make it through exactly one gallery on the bottom floor before the demigod curse of the museum activates.

And when she says activates, she means in a big way.

The two of them should have left after lunch.

A chimera in a crowded museum lobby trying to kill her has a way of sharpening a girl's hindsight.

The last time a chimera had been a part of her life, she, Annabeth, and Grover had missed it. They had managed to crowd in to an elevator and get back to the ground floor, stupidly leaving Percy on his own at the top of the Saint Luise Arch. Sue them, they'd been barely a week in to their first quest together. They had yet to figure out that leaving Percy alone in a national monument was a guaranteed recipe for disaster.

That time they hadn't seen the chimera, only the result of the attack. These results had included Percy plummeting to what they had all thought would be a horrible splatter death. Percy had described the beast to them all after the fact, but actually seeing it in person was something else.

"Get everyone out!" she shouts to Wanda, activating her bow. She doesn't have to break her nightlines with the monster to see that her friend does as she had asked. Red light streaks out through the room around them, briefly enveloping as many people as possible. Then the entire crowd begins marching out the door. It's the most calm and orderly evacuation of innocent bystanders Cassie's ever seen.

Later, she'll be impressed. Now she's a bit more worried about survival.

It takes eighty seconds, seventeen varieties of localized projectile, some very tense dodging, a helpful energy shield from Wanda, one minor sonic boom, and quite a lot of property damage before Cassie is forced to resort to drastic action. Normally she wouldn't do anything so destructive in an enclosed and public space, but she also does't normally have a monster hissing and spiting poisonous gas, flames, and acid at her. Desperate times and all...

She says a quick prayer to her father, gathers her courage, and steps out from behind the desk she's been using for cover. For her plan to work, she has to get the monster to open it's mouth. Something she'd really rather it didn't do.

As the monster stalks towards her, tail whipping and scraping over the marble floor, Cassie shuts down the part of her that is screaming at her to run away, and focuses on what she has to do. She gathers power in to every cell of her body, focusing her energy and will on what she has to do. The energy builds below her skin and she can actually feel her body temperature rising as power pulses in her veins, ready to explode the instant she lets it.

The monster is so close now that her nose is full of the smell of rotten eggs and it almost makes her gag. Then the moment she's been waiting for arrives and the creature opens it's maw to swallow her. She seizes her one and only chance and puts everything she has in to a full frontal magical attack.

The power rips out of her, sending a bolt of sound and light energy straight in to the Chimera's throat. For one long and terrible heartbeat nothing happens. Then the Chimera explodes, showering the room with venom and monster guts.

The good news is that they're alive. The bad news is that now Cassie is covered in ichor and really needs ambrosia, a shower, and a nap. Though possibly not in that order.

In fact, almost definitely not going to happen in that order.

Is it still a nap if you've been knocked unconscious against your will?

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I wanted to do some more friendship building content and bring back some of the Riordanverse elements of monster attacks. I'm also trying to update on some kind of schedule but so far I'm having trouble sticking to one. Sorry about that :(. Anyway, let me know what you thought! That's what makes writing worth while! Review for me! xoxoxxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize from anywhere is mine.**

Regaining consciousness after being knocked out is a veritable snowflake of an experience. It seems pretty before it hits you, then it's cold, somewhat shocking and befuddling to the system, and spiky looking on closer inspection. It's also an experience, which in Cassie's personal view, has never been quite the same twice.

The first time she ever passed out had been just after her mother had died. She had run for her life and then cried herself to sleep. The physical toll of the crying combined with the shock of the events of the day had her out cold. She'd woken up with a pain in her stomach from crying curled up on a bare tile floor. The overwhelming sensation she had experienced then had been one of utmost nausea.

The second time had involved major blood loss. She hadn't had her bow yet and had been reduced to fighting up close and personal with an angry vampusa. Cassie had come out of it with gushing slash wounds, but the vampusa hadn't come out of it at all, so it still goes down in her books in the win column. That time she had woken up in pain, but she had woken up, thanks in large part to Luke and Thalia's quick action and Annabeth's quicker thinking in dragging her in to some sunshine.

The next time after that had resulted from an over use of her powers. It had been the first time she had tried to make a shield out of bending light and holding it in place for any real period of time. She'd done it to get herself, Percy, and Annabeth off of _The Princess Andromeda_ without being run through with spears. It hadn't lasted long given that they had been in Florida in July.

The time after that- Well. The idea should now be fairly illustrated.

This time when Cassie wakes up it's not as surprising as it has been before. All things considered, it's not even as painful as it has been before. A quick analysis before she even opens her eyes tells her that none of her bones are broken. She doesn't seem to be bleeding from anywhere either which is always a good thing.

Hades. Nothing even seems to be sprained. She's bruised to be sure, given she's lying flat on a marble floor which wasn't true during her last conscious recollection during which she was vertical that isn't so surprising, but on the whole everything about her seems pretty physically unharmed.

Also, the ceiling in this museum is really interesting. She's never noticed the ceiling in here before and she's visited this museum at least twice. One of the very limited fringe benefits of passing out- you get a few minutes of uninterrupted quality time to look at the ceilings you never bother to observe the rest of the time.

A distant portion of Cassie's mind seems to have gotten back with the program faster than the rest of her brain because some bit of her is registering that this isn't normally the path her mind takes. That probably means she's handling some kind of shock. She thinks she'll just hang out and let it wash over her for a moment.

That plan hits it's expiration date pretty quickly when her auditory cortex gets back to doing it's job and lets her know that there are sirens rapidly approaching. She's recognizable now which severely limits her choices when it comes to forming a plan of action. It's possible that she can keep lying here and wait for someone with an ambulance to show up. Other than that she can either get up and meet the police at the door, or gather enough power to get up and get out of dodge.

The option that involves just lying around and waiting for help can be quickly struck down. Sitting around waiting for someone else to show up and save her has never been Cassie's preferred modus operandi. If it had been she'd probably have died a while ago.

That elimination leaves her with only two options and both of them involve standing up. So with a groan, Cassie summons an effort she thinks those informed to know would agree is frankly Herculean in mass, and pulls herself up in to a sitting position. The movement makes her head spin a little but does prove to be possible which is nice.

It suddenly occurs to her that she hadn't been in her last fight by herself and looks around frantically to find Wanda. The possibility that her friend might be somewhere around here hurt or otherwise in danger gets Cassie moving in a way she doesn't think anything else would ever be able to. At her core Cassie is an emergency medic. When shit hits the fan, she goes to work helping everyone it damages. Consequences to herself be damned.

Wanda turns out to be unhurt, though shaken. She had, very sensibly in Cassie's opinion, removed herself from the main portion of the battle when it had become clear she would be unable to help in the real combat. She'd positioned herself in a shielded alcove near a window overlooking the street in order to defend the mortal bystanders outside. It's thanks to her actions that no glass or debris had showered out in to the street and no one had panicked and caused extra chaos.

"What was that thing?" Wanda asks, looking paler than usual. Which, is certainly a feat.

Cassie frowns and holds out a hand to help pull her up from her crouched position in front of the window. "Technically it's a spike covered, fiery, poisonous son of the mother of all monsters called a Chimera. What'd it look like to you?"

Wanda accepts her help and regains her feet, carefully picking bits of ragged debris off of her clothes. "It seemed to me to be a blurry mix of a lion and some sort of deranged and unpleasant armadillo."

"Huh," Cassie mutters, tipping her head and considering the description. Then she nods a few times. Once would have been sufficient but her head is still a bit scrambled from passing out and making abrupt contact with a very solid floor. "That's pretty close actually. Add some fire and poison and you're basically there."

The other girl revolves slowly on the spot to examine the formerly pristine museum lobby. "I see that. At the time I was unsure as to where the fire came from." She frowns. "I do not know where I thought it was, but it was not my biggest problem."

"I think that might be kind of how the Mist works," Cassie acknowledges. "The less the brain knows how to process something, the more the Mist gets in and blurs things out. It fills in gaps. So the less higher thinking you might be doing, the more you get from the Mist. You probably saw as much as you did because my brain would have been broadcasting pretty loudly."

"It was," Wanda confirms, wincing. "Very loudly."

Cassie supposes that probably explains the greenish tinge in Wanda's cheeks. Not a lot of higher reasoning, thought, or recollection goes in to a fight for your life. You mostly end up running on adrenaline, muscle memory, and instinct. But all of those things have to come from somewhere, and the somewhere it comes from generally involved high levels of violence and fear. Both of which must be pretty overwhelming for a telepath.

She hums in sympathy. "Sorry about that."

The sirens are getting closer and a peculiar ability for sound-echo location is telling her that they'll be at their location in under a minute. She must not have been unconscious for very long given New York City response times. The internal war she's got going about weather she should stick around and explain things like a real freaking adult or just high tail it out of there with Wanda to let the Mist sort things out will have to come to a close sooner rather than later.

Wanda is examining her. "Are you alright? Your brain went very quiet for a minute."

She nods. "Passed out for a moment," she explains. "It happens sometimes. Anyway look, we can either stick it out here and talk to the cops about what just happened which is going to involve a lot of complicated shit I don't know how to explain to the NYPD, or we can completely shirk civic responsibility and get out of here fast."

Wanda is still looking at her with concern and Cassie kind of has to wonder what the portion of her brain that isn't occupied with crisis management is doing right now. Then Wanda examines the room again and the crowd outside which has moved from shocked silence to frantic jabbering and panicked shouts. She pulls a face. "Pietro and I used to steal food and supplies when we were children," she says. "I have no wish to speak to police. But how do we leave here without being noticed?"

Cassie scans the room and takes a step backwards in to a ray of sunshine pouring through the shattered windows. An examination of her arms shows her that golden sparks of magic are flicking across her skin, following the lines of her veins and centering at her pulse points. The energy she's picking up right now isn't the good and vital healthy kind she prefers. Instead, it gives her the shaky emptied out and hollow rush that too much caffein normally provides.

It's probably a bit of her father's consciousness trying to warn her that using more power isn't an idea he endorses just now. Cassie shows her appreciation for the warning by humming a fast and somewhat panicked hymn in his honor and then begins to gather the energy in to herself. All she needs is this one shot. Just one trip, and then she'll leave any and all godly power where it is for at least a week and maybe longer.

Once she thinks she's got enough power scraped together she beckons to Wanda and holds out one hand. "Grab on, hold tightly, and whatever you do, DO NOT let go."

Wanda's seen her vanish in out of space more than once so she seems to grasp what's about to happen fairly quickly. Her dark eyes widen drastically, but she does reach out and grips her hand in a tight grip. Cassie grips back and takes a quick breath.

Before going, Cassie gives voice to an ancient and well known prayer. It's one often thought but rarely vocalized these days. "O Patéras kai o Pappoús sas evlogoei to taxídi mou sto spot."

 _Father and Grandfather please bless my journey home._

Then she focuses each and every molecule of her being on where it is she wants to go, and pulls herself and Wanda through the channels of darkness between sun spots. Thankfully, they do both manage to pop out hail and hearty on the other end. Well hail and hearty might be a bit of an exaggeration.

Upon reformation in the new team common space, Wanda's first move is to launch herself for the kitchen trash can to throw up.

Cassie really can't blame her. The first thing that she experiences when her entire body checks in at it's new location is a selection of worrying reddish-black sunspots dancing in and around her vision like ripples on the surface of a pond. Her sense of balance also seems to have utterly deserted her too. The floor seems to want to launch up at her and Cassie makes the executive choice to sit down by herself before gravity does the work for her.

Her head seems to feel like it wants to sway independently from her body and possibly detach completely. Cassie likes her head where it is given that it contains her brain, so she pulls her knees in to her chest and presses her head down on them. A distant ringing is pounding through her ears so Cassie takes the additional step of crossing her arms over her knees too as an additional anchor point and sound barrier. The spinning decreases a little, but the ringing doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

"Sas efcharisto ton Patera," she murmurs at the floor. "Thank you Father. Tibi gratius Avus. Thank you Grandfather."

She'll make a proper sacrifice later. Like, when she can actually walk and speak without feeling like she wants to pass out again. Cassie will accept once in a day as a reasonable consequence for power. Equal opposite reactions being what they are. Two is pushing it.

If there's a way to stubborn her way out of this, she plans on finding it.

Over the ringing in her ears and through the barrier of her own arms, she thinks she can hear footsteps rapidly coming their way. That means she should probably make some effort at looking presentable. Or at least less catatonic.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahah.

Right.

Sometimes Cassie can really crack herself up.

She hopes she isn't giggling like a lunatic. There's a sneaking suspicion in her mind that giggling right now might concern quite a few people. Come to think of it, it'd probably concern her too. Giggling probably isn't being done by her right now. She's going to ride with that hope.

Despite all the odds, she does manage a little bit of movement.

She extricates one arm from the curled up ball she has going on and manages to feel and haul her way out of the middle of the floor toward one of the couches. She anchors her back against the bottom of the furniture, folds her arms on the coffee table, and leans her head against them. The coffee table is made out of glass and the cool substance is a fantastic sensation against her skin.

Apparently, she's overheating.

Cassie has rarely if ever been genuinely sick. Her immune system is generally pretty fantastic given her genetics. However, the possibility she's being punished for over use of power with a bit of a fever is not at all a remote one. In fact, it's pretty damn likely that that's what is going on.

What did you take for a fever when you were a demigod? Cassie casts her mind back, but she doesn't think she's ever really needed to treat this situation. The only fevers she's ever dealt with were treated with plenty of fluids, some time in bed, a supply of bad television, and ibuprofen. Maybe she'll go for something like that.

A hand taps on her shoulder and someone asks her if she's okay. Some tone in the voice that speaks let's her know that the person who's asking her is Sam. Actually hearing the words makes her feel like she's listening from under water. Still, some kind of response would appear to be necessary.

Moving her head seems from where it is just now feels like it's at some level beyond what's possible and formulating language is a singular step better. After a second to continue she works her way over to a viable solution and lifts one hand a little off of the table. She makes a quick military hand signal for 'okay' and drops the hand back to the coffee table.

Sam snorts derisively and Cassie's actually relieved to hear it because it means that some of her mental faculties are sorting themselves out. "As a guy with some basic medical training I am gonna feel nice and comfortable calling bull shit on that one Doc."

Cassie sighs and rolls her head slowly to the side to glare up at him with one eye. Then she raises her hand again and gives a second signal. This one is universal, rude, uses one finger, and is utterly impossible to mistake.

Then she closes her eyes again because the overhead lights are giving her a headache.

Sam is close enough to her that she can feel him chuckle as well as hear it. She also hears a whooshing noise and feels a gust of wind fly by her, both of which signify to her that Pietro has arrived to check on his sister. Wanda and her brother share a strong enough permanent mental link that Pietro probably knew what was happening and where they were going within seconds of them making their decision.

A quick chatter of Sokovian passes straight over her head and then there is another whoosh as Pietro leaves again. The swirl of cold air feels lovely against her skin and Cassie moved her arms a little to rest her cheek against the table's surface. She should probably find a water bottle and chug it at some point in the near future.

"Alright now," she hears Sam say. Then she feels him scoop her up off the floor before depositing her on the couch. And that's... that's better actually. Much better. Good thinking on Sam's part in her opinion. Because now she's not vertical in any sense of the word and it's easier to comfortably curl up in a fetal position.

Cassie pats Sam on the arm in a gesture which she hopes conveys her thanks. He seems to get it because he rubs her back in a brotherly way and then gets up and returns a minute later with a large glass of water and one of the protein bars she herself had created. Then he kneels down in front of her.

"Wanna give vertical a shot before a certain Captain shows up and panics?" he asks. "'Cause I don't know exactly what you're dealing with right now. But I gotta say you've looked better, and it's probably gonna be my job to calm down a protective Super Soldier if he freaks out. And Speedy just went to go get him so..."

She groans but nods and then swallows and reaches for speech. "Okay," she croaks, voice dry and scratchy. "Help me sit up?"

Sam nods and reaches out, shifting her upwards so that she's more leaning on the arm of the couch than curled up on the cushions. Then he hands her the glass of water and uncomplainingly helps her drink when her hands prove too shaky to do it herself. Next he produces a bottle of Advil. "I don't know how this works on you, but this is kinda seeming like a 'what the hell' type of situation."

There's really not much to say against that so she takes the offered capsules in her palm and swallows them dry. Weather they work or not, she doesn't think they'll be able to make her feel much worse. Sam nods approvingly and then hands her the unwrapped granola bar which she nibbles on without really tasting it.

That's around when she notices that sparks are still dancing over her wrists, diving and surfing along her veins, weaving frantically through her blood stream. She's only seen her magic behave like this once before, and that time it was because she had been attempting to cure Percy of Pit Scorpion venom. Suddenly, the level of crappy she's feeling makes a whole lot more sense. The chimera hadn't been able to sting her, but it had done the uncharacteristic thing of bursting in to blood, guts, and venom. Some of it must have gotten absorbed and now her system is becoming consumed with fighting it off.

"Can you-" she tries to say, but it comes out raspy so she swallows before trying again. "Can you hand me my bag Sam?"

Sam is frowning at the sparks still visible in her blood stream but he moves quickly and grabs the bag for her. Cassie nods and thinks about reaching out to take the bag and then decides against it. "Inside it there's a ziplock bag in a closed side pocket. What's inside it is probably going to look like a lemon bar. Break it in half and then hand it too me. Quick."

Once again, Sam follows directions without hesitation and hands her the partially crushed portion of ambrosia. Cassie takes the godly food and takes a hesitant bite. She isn't completely certain that this will work, but letting poison take a jive through her body isn't exactly a tenable plan. Thankfully, the godly food does it's job in seconds as the taste of chocolate and cinnamon washes through her mouth and warms her from head to toe.

She eats the portion slowly, relieved that it seems to be banishing the a lot of the sick and spinning feeling in her head and stomach. A little bit more might eliminate the feeling completely, but she's still definitively shaky and feverish without the added risks of immortal substances. Her heart rate is already speeding up but at least it's more even now. The sparks and glow signifying her powers are beginning to fade and recede. She still feels absolutely horrible, but this is at least a functional kind of horrible.

It's the godly equivalent of a bad case of the flu.

Probably.

She's never actually had the flu.

Sam whistles. "Damn. I got no idea what that stuff is but it does a damn fine job fixing you up."

Cassie pushes herself up a little more and takes a bigger bite of her granola bar. "Am I looking a bit better?"

"Less like you might pass out and die," Sam tells her honestly. "I'm not about to say it's the best you've ever looked though."

Well. Cassie can live with that given the circumstances. "Wanda?" she asks. "Is she doing okay? I don't pull people side-along like that very often. I was pretty out of it when we first got back but I don't think my kind of emergency travel agreed with her."

Sam nods. "She was doing okay last I saw. Looked kinda nauseous but not too bad. Gave the basics on what happened and then sent her brother to go get Steve. At least I think thats what the Sokovian was about. Haven't picked up the language yet."

"But it's something you're working on?" Cassie asks. She hadn't heard that it was something he was doing but she isn't so surprised. It's an example of the kind of consideration that makes Sam such a good person.

"One of the things you learn when you travel with any kind of military is that the United States depends a lot on the idea that the rest of the world speaks English. When it turns out it doesn't, communications start breaking down fast," he shrugs. "Speaking a language our new team members do seems like it might be the nice thing to do. Nat's been helping me out when she's around. And Rosetta Stone's a wonder."

Cassie manages a tired smile. "Let me know how it goes," she tells him. "Dyslexia says I won't be able to join you, but still, consider me behind you one hundred percent."

FRIDAY makes a chiming noise which since the AI's installation, Cassie has come to realize is the computerized equivalent of a person clearing their throat. "According to my lobby sensors, Captain Rogers has just returned to the premises. According to City traffic cameras, he has been traveling at a somewhat alarming rate since being informed of today's goings on by Mr. Maximoff. Shall I open the doors on his route from the lobby to this room?"

Before answering Cassie does a rapid mental calculation. The factors involved are somewhat fluctuating, and involve everything from Steve's probable panic level, to distance traveled, to created architectural plans, to the listed breaking force needed to shatter the doors/door frames used in the Tower. Most end quantities she ends up with after doing the math involve several thousand dollars of property damage.

Not that their landlord will actually end up charging them.

Probably.

In all likelihood it would depend on Tony's mood and weather or not Pepper is around.

She lets her head fall back on the couch again and casts her eyes at the ceiling. "That's probably a good idea FRIDAY, thanks. Also, I don't know if there's anything in your programming that can make the elevator go faster, but if there is you should probably do it. A worried Steve is a Steve with very little patience, and an impatient Steve is a Steve that's like forty times more likely to accidentally break a whole lot of drywall and furniture by accident."

"Yes Doctor Morgenstern," FRIDAY says, and barely a second later the door clicks and swings open.

Sam gives one of his easy grins and reaches out to pat her knee. "I'm gonna make a nice strategic retreat to the kitchen. I don't have quite the same breaking strength as that nice wall over there. You need anything while I'm in there?"

Cassie sighs and presses the heels of her hands hard against her eye. Sensations are now cueing up for her attention and one of them is a massive headache that may eventually grow in to a migraine. "I should probably keep hydrating," she says. "Thank you Sam."

He gives her a little salute and Cassie starts her mental count down. She gives Steve thirty seconds to get there. It's an outside guess, so the fact that Steve comes hurtling through the door when she hits twenty-two is in no way shocking.

The fact that he almost does the hurdles over two couches and a coffee table getting to her reinforces the notion that opening the doors between the lobby and this room was a good idea. The maintenance crews around here were used to cleaning up some odd messes, they work for Tony Stark after all, but from her understanding drywall is difficult to replace seamlessly. Leo has made complaints before.

She pushes herself forwards a bit more and holds up both of her hands. As she does so, she notices that a dim gold glow is still emanating from below her skin. Evidently ambrosia is not a one hundred percent effective five minute cure for chimera poison. The moment makes her wish she had something to wear with sleeves. Glowing skin is never really a sign that everything is okay-kosher.

Steve is in front of her in seconds and stops short. Obviously he hadn't had time or mental capacity to plan any farther than charging to her current location to see what was going on. Looking back on things, that's about his general method of problem solving when he personally knows someone who's in trouble. It's what he had done when Bucky had been taken back in World War II.

"What happened?" he asks. His voice is hitting a tone of scary-calm that means he's definitely panicking and trying to wrestle the emotion down. He kneels down in front of her. Then he reaches out but doesn't seem to know where to touch or weather he even should. His hands hover, moving along her arms and sides without making contact. Cassie notices that they're shaking slightly.

Cassie opens her mouth to speak but Steve isn't done speaking and simply steamrollers ahead. "Pietro didn't really explain. He just said that you and Wanda had been attacked at the museum and when he left you weren't moving. And then I couldn't get anybody on the phone and I know you've dealt with monsters since you were a kid and you go out and fight them all the time but normally you don't get hurt." He looks up at her, blue eyes helpless and more than a little confused.

She takes a deep breath and firmly takes his hands with hers and squeezes gently. "Okay," she says, and winces when her voice comes out croaky. "I don't think this is as bad as it looks, but I haven't looked in a mirror lately so maybe not. Things are also not as bad as I know I sound."

He disentangles one hand and reaches out, looping her hair back over her ear. It's a brave move what with the sweat and monster goo. The goo is a problem on several levels. "You look beautiful," he says. "Always. But what happened. Cass, if there's anyway-"

"Nothing you can do," Cassie tells him as firmly as she can under the circumstances. She leans up and kisses his forehead. "I know you're used to saving people, but seriously, in things like this I'm all set to save me. The attacks are too random to plan for, I'm good at handling them, and nine times out of ten I come out of them fine. This time was an exception. I just used too much power to kill the monster and get out of the museum."

Steve comes around to sit next to her and pulls her tightly in to his side, tracing small figures on her back. He's quiet for the moment and Cassie let's him be. She get's the feeling he needs his own time to once again swallow the fact that he can't necessarily keep her safe from the more dangerous elements of her life. It's time she can spare, she's exhausted and Steve's chest makes a better pillow than any couch kitchen.

The sigh he releases is one Cassie can feel deep in his chest. "What attacked you? The news is going with some kind of a gas explosion."

Cassie makes a mental note that she owes Sadie Kane five dollars. It's a long standing bet they have about how their godly issues and combat get played to the wider media. Where the Kanes went, stories of sewer gas malfunctions invariably followed.

She shifts her head a little on his chest and shuts her eyes against the dull throbbing filling her temples. "It's called a chimera," she tells him. "It's a lion, goat, snake thing that spits fire and breathes poison. Poison which evidently can now be absorbed through the skin after you kill it. Which didn't used to be the case I don't think, but Percy was twelve when he saw it and lasted about twelve seconds before doing a high dive escape off of the Saint Luis Arch. The chimera's very old and doesn't show up often. Accounts got a little mixed up over the last millennium."

He tips his head over so that his cheek is leaned on top of her head. "I- I can't even picture that."

"I wouldn't try," Cassie mumbles sincerely. "It's not an image I ever wanted in my head, but living with it is better than the alternative." She pulls herself upright and turns to face him. "I promise you I'm going to be fine," she tells him. "My residual healing capabilities are fighting the venom off as we speak and I already took some ambrosia. I'm gonna feel crappy for a few days, but that's it."

Steve's mouth twitches a little like he's trying to smile but isn't sure he remembers how just at the moment. "I can handle that," he says. "I'll burry you in a million blankets and figure out what kind of tea is supposed to cure poison. Apparently Meg swears there's a tea for everything at the natural foods grocery store." Obviously the semblance of having a plan is helpful and Cassie prepares herself for what's to come. She has a feeling that a slightly protracted illness is going to bring out Steve's latent hovering and mother hen behavior on a whole new level.

She turns her head to press a kiss in to the fabric of his shirt over his heart. "How about we go home?" she suggests. She's gotten back to the exhaustion stage of things and she feels like she's trying to talk around a mouthful of cotton fluff. Right now all Cassie wants to do is sleep and she's about willing to pass out right here on the couch if necessary.

That said, she'd prefer to sleep in a real bed.

"Okay," she hears Steve say tenderly. "Go ahead and sleep. I'll carry you."

Cassie gives him a smile which will hopefully convey her thanks adequately and remains curled up in a little ball for the trip back to their apartment. Had she still been on her own, she would have fallen asleep where she was and then mentally berate herself in to getting up and finding a bed later. However, now she has a super soldier boyfriend very much capable of helping her out so she's going to choose to take advantage of that.

Steve walks them both back to the apartment and FRIDAY must open the doors for them because she never feels his grip on her change. Then she gets changed in to her pajamas and crawls under the covers. The only surprising thing in this situation is that Steve also changes and crawls in next to her.

She frowns around a yawn. "You don't need to lie around with me," she mumbles. "Give me a couple hours and I'll be- be," she's prevented from continuing by another yawn, and this one is wide enough that the stretch in her jaw sends another stab of pain through her head.

"Uh huh," Steve says in a way that makes her think that in this circumstance her own will is going to be absolutely ignored. He moves his own head a little and brushes the lightest of kisses over one throbbing temple. "Tell me that again when moving your head doesn't make you flinch and maybe I'll believe you."

Cassie burrows a little in to his solid warmth next to her and when she speaks again her voice is muffled by the material of his tee-shirt. "Thought you said you'd never call a lady a liar."

He shifts under her and the dim glow that had been filling the room before winks out meaning he must have had the lights turned out. "I never said you lied," he says calmly. "Just that I didn't buy what you'd said. Now go to sleep."

"Bossy."

Despite her protests, she does fall asleep and stays that way for the next ten hours. She eats another piece of ambrosia and goes back to bed. She doesn't know how long she's drifting in and out of being awake, but it must be a while if the progression of sunshine coming in through the gap in the blinds is any indication. When she finally wakes up for good with her headache gone, her phone tells her that it's eight o'clock in the morning.

Steve isn't next to her anymore, but she can hear people moving around in the kitchen so he's probably out there. A shower seems in order so she rolls out of bed and begins to pick her way across the room to the bathroom. Her legs are more wobbly than she would like to admit, and she's still getting occasional black spots in her vision, but she doesn't feel like she wants to curl up and die anymore so she's willing to call this an improvement.

The hot water that pours from the shower head does wonders in relaxing her muscles and she comes out of it feeling cleaner, refreshed, and more human than she has for the last twenty-four hours. Things are going so well since that particular feature of morning routine that she takes it a step farther and brushes her teeth before braiding her hair back loosely to keep it neater. Very possibly such efforts are pointless since her plans for the day mostly involve going back to bed, but she's doing them anyway as a point of principle.

She's just gotten herself resettles under the covers when a knock sounds on the bedroom door. It opens a moment later and Reyna sticks her head in. "Hello," she says. "Is there space on that mattress for me?"

Cassie smiles and makes a sweeping gesture towards the expense of mattress next to her. "Of course."

Reyna grins and kicks off her shoes before hopping up on to the mattress next to her. "I hear you had a run in with a chimera."

"Yup," Cassie confrims. "And it was weird too. The way it produces poison's changed for one thing."

"So I see," her friend says dryly, regarding Cassie's current paid complexion and slightly glowing wrists. "The skin's not broken anywhere but you still ended up poisoned. Did it absorb through your skin? Or do you think it was inhaled?"

The answer to that question is one that Cassie's thought over already. "Through the skin," she says. "Otherwise my lungs would be in way worse shape than they are. But Reyna that wasn't the weird part. The weird part was that after I killed it, the chimera exploded. And I mean like really exploded. There were guts. It didn't just turn in to dust and leave a bad smell the way most monsters do."

Reyna frowns. "Now that I've never seen before." She taps her fingers together as she leans back against the headboard. "We still haven't taken Katya to visit either of our camps yet. Maybe we can combine doing that with asking some questions. We could go this weekend?"

Cassie nods. "That sounds good but maybe next weekend would be better. I don't think I'm going to be up for travel before tomorrow and we need longer than one day. Were you thinking Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood?"

Personally, Cassie is hoping for a nice drive down to Long Island rather than a flight to California. Much as she respect the immortal wolf goddess Lupa, Chiron is a bit better for providing advice and getting people set up to do research. Wolves aren't known for being communicative and helpful.

"Camp Half-Blood," Reyna says decisively. "Definitely. We need advice not training. Chiron will be more helpful."

She makes a humming noise. "That sounds like a good plan. Meanwhile, is my boyfriend in the kitchen?"

Reyna nods. "Yours and mine. I think Bucky is about to browbeat Steve in to being more calm about all of this. I think they're making breakfast. You should have some nice eggs and an ungodly amount of bacon to eat within the next twenty minutes. I have also provided a lovely helping of arroz con leche for your enjoyment. I'm planning on throwing you a picnic in your room."

Cassie freezes and regards Reyna carefully. "You cooked," she says suspiciously. "And not only did you cook, you put in a lot of effort. You made me the traditional and thoroughly delicious dish known as arroz con leche. You are showing me affection through food. You are Reyna Avilla Ramirez-Arellano! You do not show concern through food! You organize people's personal lives and vanquish their enemies for them. Just how close to dead am I looking right now?"

Her friend gives a nonchalant shrug. "If it helps any, you look less dead now than you did before you showered and brushed your hair. Now you just look a little dead. The hot water has made your skin seem more human in color instead of papery grey. Before, I was wondering if I should call someone to make you a shroud."

"My cabin makes pretty shrouds," Cassie says glibly after a moment spent in silence to digest that comment. Reyna doesn't tend to lie or exaggerate. If she's straight out saying that Cassie looked that bad, than she definitely looked that bad. She's picking humor in the face of a near death experience as so many of her friends tend to do. "Seriously, they're pretty. They're shiny and gold with embroidery."

"I've heard that," Reyna comments. "Not surprising. The children and descendants of Apollo when they made it in to the senate always had the nice togas. Even Octavian had a nice dramatic dress sense and he was the most watered down sniveling weasel of a descendant I ever met."

Cassie funnels a little extra healing energy in to the tips of her fingers and snaps them, producing a tiny burst of controlled flame. It flickers and dies out very quickly, but the fact that she can do it at all right now is encouraging. "Drraaaaammaaa," she sings lightly.

It makes Reyna crack a smile, but Cassie knows she's still covering up a fairly severe level of worry. "There must be a song somewhere about that," she says. "I can't remember the words, but I know I once heard a song from a show about why theater was so great. I always thought it was funny but it irritated Hylla. She felt like it was too much self-advertising."

"Hmmm..." Cassie considers. "'There's no business like show business like no business I know,'" she quotes. "Was it that?"

One of the frown lines on Reyna's face relaxes at having the mystery solved. "Yes that was it. What show is that?"

Cassie shrugs. "I'm pretty sure it's _Annie Get Your Gun."_

"That's a very strange name for a musical."

"The title probably gets explained during the show," Cassie says fairly. "I haven't ever actually watched it. My phone has a wide randomization program that downloads a variety of songs for me to listen to. I get some weird stuff without very much context. Like, I've gotten minstrel ballads interspersed with modern K-Pop before and they make about the same level of sense to me. Which is to say, none whatsoever. If I want to download something specific I have to ask for it on my phone."

Reyna makes a small face. It's the same expression she always makes when they're forced to use technology for their daily lives. Of course, with her new position in the media, Reyna herself has to use one more often now than she ever did before. "I'm worried about the level of demigod exposure we have in this building now," she says. "Just you and me was bad enough given the amount of power we've got between the two of us, but now with Katya and Meg..."

Cassie nods in agreement. This problem is one that's been percolating in the back of her mind for a while now. It's also something she's been trying not to examine too closely, but now here it is in bold. "I think Katya's probably alright for the moment," she says, thinking out loud. "In another year she'd have something to worry about all on her own. The real issue right now is I'm putting out two godly signatures by myself, your a favorite of your mother's and one of her only direct descendants alive today, and Meg is the most powerful child of Demeter I've ever met. All three of us are about past the highest danger point but all together we've gotta be hard to ignore."

"I could call some people," Reyna offers. "There are warding specialists and scrolls on magical protection in the university library in New Rome. Maybe Frank and Hazel will be able to find some kind of warding we can put on the building. It won't be anything like as strong as the protections we have on either camp, but without some of our more high and mighty family members on our side to help out that'll probably be the best we can do."

The 'high and mighty' family members to whom Reyna is referring don't seem that likely to pitch in and lend a hand for four of their descendants alone from Cassie's experience. Even if they could find some family member of theirs who was wiling to help, it wouldn't be the kind of favor that comes cheaply. It's all a trade off in prices to be paid and Cassie's not sure what their metaphorical bank accounts look like right now. One thing's for sure, she doesn't feel comfortable enough to be making any bets.

The best Cassie and Reyna can do is figure out which of their more human friends is willing to help. "I'll get a message to Chiron and ask him to check in with some people in the Hecate cabin. Some of the kids in there are pretty powerful. Maybe they'll be able to figure out some kind of warding spell or early warning system we can put on the new property upstate. Something temporary on this building would help too for the meantime."

Reyna groans. "Gods. We're going to need to drug the rest of the building's inhabitants in to calmness if we decide we want to leave the property for the next few weeks. Especially when they find out we can ward a building. We'll need to do Stark, Pepper, both of our boyfriends, and probably Pietro Maximoff." She raises an eyebrow at Cassie. "Any ideas?"

"Well we shouldn't have any problem with a delivery system," Cassie muses. "Everybody who lives on this floor and works with this team has me for their chief physician. They take the drugs I tell them. The problem will need to be dosage amounts and what substance to administer. Pepper we can probably dose pretty easily but I'd be shocked if Tony didn't have an immunity to most drugs known to man. The dosage level and concentration I'd have to give Steve, Bucky, and Pietro would need some fine-tuning to get dialed in, and in the meantime we'd be dealing with a whole lot of stoned people."

Reyna heaves a deep sigh. "That's probably not worth it then." Then she tips her head and sniffs. "Ah... From the aroma I believe that Jamie must have now burned the bacon to a point that is now sufficient for human consumption. I'll go coordinate food and drink delivery and we'll have our intrusive picnic breakfast."

Cassie rolls her eyes. "Which is obviously the best kind."

Her friend sticks her tongue out in a brief regression to childhood and hops up off the bed to go to the door. She leaves her shoes behind which means she's planning to make herself comfortable for a little while. It's nice to know that Cassie won't be spending her recovery time alone and bored or overly hovered around.

In the time it takes for the other presences in the apartment to bring in breakfast, Cassie decides to be as productive as she can. This is expressed in shifting all of the pillows in to an arrangement that props her up completely and maintains open furniture space. She also gets FRIDAY to turn on the lights and modulate them to a level that can provide illumination without hurting her eyes.

All of this takes about five minutes before the bedroom door opens again and Reyna re-enters, this time followed by Bucky and Steve. All three are weighted down with plates, glasses, silverware, and paper napkins. As predicted, the amount of bacon is frankly unconscionable.

She whistles. "This is a party," she says with a smile. "Seriously, the award for the nicest post-poisoning recovery ever goes to this one. A private breakfast in bed buffet with people I like is amazing. We should do this more often."

Steve's face twists in to an expression that suggests he might have just bitten in to a lemon. "Actually, let's not."

Cassie waves a hand and then uses it to reach for the plate Reyna is offering her. Steve's eyes track the movement of her hands and Cassie follows his gaze with her hands. She's pleased to note that they don't shake any longer. "Obviously the poisoning would be completely optional as a prerequisite." She takes a bite of her bacon and enjoys the fact that Bucky apparently likes his extra crackly.

Reyna retakes her previous seat on the mattress next to her and passes over a glass filled with arroz con leche. Steve takes a seat on the mattress near her feet and balances his plate on top of a book to minimize crumbs and spills. Bucky simply drags over a desk chair to sit in and begins wolfing down eggs.

After a moment or two of protein inhaling Bucky takes a second and waves his fork vaguely in her direction. "I thought you being poisoned by a mythological goat-lion-snake monster was the salient detail here."

"Your point is taken," Cassie says loftily. "Now hush and let me eat my eggs before they get cold. I haven't eaten in a while and now that the poisoning is a thing of the past my stomach no longer hurts and I'm starving."

Bucky makes a conversational tactical retreat and nods once silently.

Steve is already done with his plate and despite the fact that she is hungrier than she's been in the last twenty-four hours, Cassie hands over a piece of bacon for him to eat before he puts his plate aside. Then he asks the question of the day. "How do we keep this kind of thing from happening? Or minimize how many times it does happen if stopping it isn't possible?"

The prompt is clear, and because she and Reyna have already developed a basic strategy Cassie takes the time to finish her breakfast while her friend outlines what the two of them had talked about. Steve and Bucky iron out a few more details. Four tactical heads in this case are certainly better than two, and before things are finalized Cassie wants to talk to Katya, Tony, Pepper, and Meg. What's good is that both Bucky and Steve, concerned as they may be, are recognizing that Cassie and Reyna have more experience with this kind of situation than they do.

By the time the conversation is over, they have a more fleshed out plan to go down to Camp Half-Blood a week from today. If Pepper, Tony, and Meg agree, the seven of them along with Katya will visit Camp the following Friday and drive back up to the city on Sunday night. It's possible that Pietro might want to come too, but Cassie has no idea what in Hades might be going on with him and Meg so she can't say.

Cassie initially volunteers to make all the calls seeing as Chiron knows her better. This idea is firmly put down by Reyna who says that seeing as Cassie can't get through a sentence right now without her voice breaking, the phone call might be better coming from her. Under other circumstances Cassie might have argued harder, but Reyna will already be calling around a lot this week so she might as well add one more to the list.

What Cassie will be doing is talking with Tony, Pepper, and hopefully Katya too. That won't happen for a few days though. The presentation will be better when the Chimera poison is completely flushed out of her body and she's had a chance to recharge.

With her body still working to fight off the remaining venom, Cassie runs out of energy far quicker than she would like or will ever admit. It's also clearly been a sleepless night for Steve worrying about her and trying to plan to fight an enemy he can't hope to protect the people he cares about from. Bucky and Reyna have been up for just as long worrying about Steve as well as Cassie.

This observation is backed up when Reyna drops off to sleep against the side of one of the pillows Cassie had stacked to make room earlier. Bucky collects all of the breakfast plates and vanishes in to the kitchen before coming back and simply stretching out on the floor with a poached pillow. He doesn't snore, but his breathing audibly changes in to a heavier rhythm.

Steve smiles a little nostalgically and drops a blanket down on top of his friend who shuffles without a word to curl up under it. "He's slept like that since he was a kid," he remembers. "He curls up on the other side now though. He used to use the metal one as a pillow. I guess it makes sense that he doesn't anymore."

"Metal can't be comfy," Cassie concedes. "Meanwhile our mattress is, and you should take advantage of that." She holds up a hand to forestall him before he can protest. "Don't pretend you slept while I was out," she says. "I know you didn't. So I'm going to scoot over on this very large mattress by shoving my friend over a little, and you're going to lie down next to me and sleep." He looks like he might be about to protest so Cassie crosses her arms and puts on her most stubborn expression. "I will keep myself awake until you sleep," she threatens, feeling somewhat mutinous. "I know you feel like you need to take care of me, but you need to take care of you too."

For a moment, Steve seems to weigh up his options and then exhales heavily and shakes his head. "I don't get to win here do I?"

Cassie lifts her chin and shakes her head. "Nope."

Then Steve indicates for her to slide over which she does, prodding Reyna to roll to the side as she does so. He comes to lie down next to her and Cassie is relieved to see him shut his eyes. The blueish circles under them worry her. Steve can go longer than a normal human can without sleep, but emotional stress takes a separate toll on the human body. Unsurprisingly, he's as unconscious as Reyna and Bucky within minutes.

This time when Cassie falls asleep, it's a gentle, gradual process. It's natural and healthy. And she does it surrounded by people who care about her.

All in all, it isn't the worst way to lose consciousness.

 **A/N: Well there it is guys. How did you like it? Next chapter will see our heroes taking a trip down to Camp Half-Blood. Should be exciting right? Sorry about the delay posting. I meant to get this out earlier in the week but my computer lost the draft and I had to rewrite. Because of that I've been rushing a little and will fully admit that I haven't done a lot of proof reading. If you guys catch something let me know. Meanwhile, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer: Whoever gets paid for this, it sure ain't me.**

The next few days are interesting logistically speaking. Cassie spends at least three of them learning exactly how many travel arrangements you can make using a demigod safe phone while sitting in bed. Because bed is most definitely where she's stuck.

That little story about doctors being bad patients? Yeah. Apparently that is one category in which Cassie is not the exception.

She putters around the apartment a little, but whenever Steve is home while she does, he watches her out of the corner of his eye and in reflective surfaces like he's worried she'll pass out. It seems to take a lot of his mental restraint not to hover next to her when she paces while she talks on the phone. The fact that she stood up too fast the first time she tried on the morning of day one for planning and had a head rush probably doesn't help.

It can now be officially confirmed that Steve Rogers can travel thirty feet in .7 seconds. Approximately. Cassie doesn't actually know how to count tenths of a second. That would be a skill. Maybe a mundane one, but a skill none the less.

The gods bless Steve for trying not to hover in person. He makes a really genuine effort in that area. Instead, being who he is, he makes a plan. This plan involves the recruitment of allies, and probably some kind of color coded schedule.

Given the fact that Cassie is literally the only person on the planet with both the magical and medical training apart from her little brother to know exactly what's wrong with her and the necessary treatments and concessions, she kind of thinks the level of babying she's being subjected to is unnecessary. Unnecessary, but also evidently inescapable. She knows, she's tried.

And been summarily thwarted.

By everyone.

Seriously the entire building seems to be conspiring (or less dramatically, in on the plan) to keep her at home and away from work.

Reyna and Meg show up one day with homemade churros and vanilla ice cream along with full license from Tony to use FRIDAY for TV binging. They also bring Wanda along with them. The girl initially feels a little guilty over the fact that Cassie had gotten hurt at the museum, but Cassie and Reyna together banish that with a few other epic monster induced injury stories.

Meg threatens to sit on her when she volunteers to take their used dishes in to the kitchen. Wanda hovers full water glasses to them from two rooms away without being able to see them rather than letting Cassie get up to fill them like a normal person, and Reyna expresses her concern by persistently adjusting the thermostat and alternately handing her more blankets and pulling them away again.

She puts up with it as well as can be expected and only throws one minor tantrum when Meg unsubtly tries to follow her out of the room when she gets up after the third episode of television she had never watched when she was the target audience and could have lived without watching ever.

"I know I have been poisoned but I have been capable of walking twelve feet to the bathroom by myself for more than twenty years! I am not going to pull a fast one and dive out the window to escape all of your well meaning intensive care!"

After that her friends back off a little and when it's time for them to leave, no one protests or makes a face at her walking them to the door.

The next day begins with Natasha walking in with a large bowl of borscht that can be heated up to eat later. She also carries a volume of cold case crime television on disc, the watching of which is altogether a lot more entertaining than the teeny bopper show they'd suffered through yesterday in the name of familiarizing themselves with popular culture. What makes the experience even better is that occasionally Natasha will scoff at something and say that whatever the people on screen have said is completely wrong.

If she had to guess she'd say that this extra knowledge probably comes from a source marked 'Top Secret'. She's also got the feeling that between Nat, Bucky, and Barton, most of the international unattributed assassinations and murders over the last twenty years can probably be explained. However, these are questions she is definitely never going to ask.

When it comes to her close personal friends and sketchy murder, unless they feel like giving her the details, she's going with the philosophy of ignorance being bliss.

What's not so much bliss is Cassie getting an alert about the team going out to handle some kind of crisis in Pennsylvania and having Natasha kidnap her phone. "It's being handled," Nat informs her dryly, tucking Cassie's phone in to her back pocket. "It's flyover recon and containment. No one on the team is even actually leaving the ship unless they have to. Tony's deploying the drones."

"What if something explodes and everyone catches fire and dies?" Cassie asks, eyebrows raised.

Natasha dissmisses her (she feels perfectly valid) concerns with a wave of her hand. "Then we'll know it's a normal day with Tony Stark."

By that Thursday, Cassie's convinced that there's some kind of conspiracy in the works.

This conclusion is one that's hard to avoid with Pietro Maximoff bouncing around her apartment like a pingpong ball on crack offering to get her things and deliver paperwork for her. At least he doesn't take her phone like Natasha had, so she has a way to call for help. Given her suspicions and the fact that Rhodey and Sam are both busy, she skips around texting either of them or Steve and instead dispatches an S.O.S to a different rescuer.

Bucky doesn't reply, but does show up in a timely manor to save her from attempting lunch with the human Energizer Bunny hybrid that is Pietro. He invites himself in and reaches out one metal hand to catch the silver-blue blur of Pietro's shirt. "There was a line of ridiculous, and we've passed it," he informs Pietro. "You're spelled."

Pietro takes a deep breath and glances between Bucky and Cassie. "Excellent," he says. "Not that you were not excellent company Doctor. But if I leave now I will be able to find the lovely Meg before she leaves for her meeting. I think it was something to do with vegetables." With that he blurs over to Cassie, kisses her forehead, and then blurs out the door.

Once he's gone Bucky shuts the door and turns back around to face Cassie. His gaze takes in the too-clean apartment, the vats of food people have brought her and left for her on their visits, the stack of movies and DVDs, the books and files scattered around the couch she's been parked on for the last three hours, and the nest of blankets Steve had left her with before leaving that morning. Then he looks at her and cracks a small smile.

"Go get your coat," he tells her. "You need actual air in it's natural form and human contact."

Cassie grins and hops up from her seat. "Do I get french fries too?"

Bucky rolls his eyes. "Duh. Bring a sweater or something. If I'm jailbreaking you from the proxy hovering of Steve Rogers we are not risking you getting a cold. He's the only guy on the planet who can punch me and make it hurt."

In five minutes flat, Cassie is dressed, clean enough for public interaction, and wearing actual shoes for the first time in days. She never thought it would be so wonderful to tie her own shoes. "Thank you so much," she says as they make their way out the door. "Day one was nice in that he thought to ask people to come over and keep me company. Day two was pushing it but he ducked out too early for me to bring it up and came home late."

"He knows you've figured out he's hovering through other people," Bucky says casually. "Knowing him, he's trying to avoid you so you can't yell at him."

She frowns and fiddles with the zipper of the sweater she had grabbed off of the back of Steve's favorite chair. It'll be huge on her, but it'll be comfortable and warm and honestly that's how Cassie prioritizes her clothing choices when she doesn't have to look professional or put together. "I wouldn't yell at him," she says. "We've never done the yelling thing before. We talk. I don't wanna change that, but I can't promise that something like this won't happen again and this can't happen every time I get hurt."

The elevator stops on the ground floor and opens on to the parking garage so that they can leave the building without dealing with the press or general public. Bucky gestures for her to exit before he follows after her. "You're not hurt."

"I know," Cassie says, resisting the urge to stomp with more force than necessary as she walks in her frustration. "That's why this is so freaking frustrating! I'm fine. I was slightly less fine yesterday and will be more fine tomorrow. All of the bruises and cuts are completely gone. There is no blood loss. The poison is almost completely out of my system. I have the demigod equivalent of a bad cold or mediocre flu strain."

Bucky stops walking and turns to her. "Both of which could have and very nearly did kill Steve when we were kids. Plus his mom caught Tuberculosis and died. Intellectually, Steve knows that this isn't the same. But he sees someone he cares about sick and somewhere in his brain a scrawny kid from Brooklyn starts ringing a giant plague bell of panic and death."

Cassie processes this information has to admit that it makes a lot of sense. Well, it's not like she had a lot of other things to do or people to talk with for the rest of the day. Bucky isn't exactly chatty, and seems to have no problem leaving people to stew in their own thoughts. She'll take some time and figure out how to change her approach when she brings this up with Steve later.

She and Bucky have a nice lunch together at the diner Steve used to go to a lot when he had lived here right after Loki. It also happens to be the diner where Cassie had worked as a waitress while attending Columbia. She's pleased to see that they've rebuilt the ceiling and walls previously destroyed by the Chitauri.

The fries are still amazing, hot, and crunchy. The coffee still tends towards the slightly burnt side of things, and they still provide a menu that encompasses a wide variety of breakfast and lunch foods available at all hours of the day. Bucky, having a metabolism that matches Steve's, orders full breakfast and full lunch and plows through it in slightly over half the time it takes Cassie to eat her single hamburger with fries.

It's a nice lunch and Cassie realizes that Bucky and her haven't ever spent much time just hanging around each other without Steve and Reyna around too. The fact that they're friends with each other on their own terms and for their own reasons as well as for the sake of the people they have in common is a great thing in her mind.

Towards the end of their meal Bucky's phone beeps. He wipes his fingers on a napkin and then extracts the device co read the message. "We should wrap up here," he says. "Steve's now asking me how you are from a conference room."

Cassie clucks her tongue and waves to get the attention of their waitress. "My boyfriend, the perfect soldier, reduced to under the table texting. What's the world coming too?"

The check arrives and she pays, leaving a generous tip. She doesn't know their waitress personally, but having been part of the restaurant service industry, she feels a certain sympathy level towards other people in that profession. Besides, dealing with rude, impatient, and indecisive people seriously deserves monetary compensation.

"Well I haven't gotten an emergency message so we know the world can't be ending. Between our two jobs, someone would have mentioned it."

Just to be on the safe side, Cassie checks her own phone and is relieved to find no messages. She shrugs at Bucky's sideways look. "It's an average Thursday," she says with a sheepish expression. "I thought I should check."

They arrive back at the Tower and Bucky drops her off at the apartment before heading off to find Reyna. He leaves her with a waring that Steve is probably pacing around the living room by now and a surprisingly nice hug for being a former soviet brainwashed assassin.

People have all kinds of diverse skills.

Another one of Bucky's seems to be the guessing of Steve Roger's location at any given time. This is probably a natural skill developed over a long childhood spent together. Either that or he's got a bent for divination.

Both options are sadly viable in her life.

Sure enough, Steve is standing in front of the living room window tossing his phone from hand to hand. It's a nervous tick, and one that means he's wondering how many calls he can make to ask how she is before it gets annoying or creepy. The answer to that question is exactly one.

"Okay," she sighs. "Are you ready for me to tell you for the bajillionth and finale time that I'm fine now? Because I'm planning on going to my office tomorrow and doing the rest of the planning we need to do to go up to Camp, and if you're going to be texting me every five minutes or sending people around to check up on me I am never going to get anything done."

Steve inhales deeply and catches the breath before exhaling. It's a calming technique Cassie hopes will work because she'd really prefer to have this conversation with her boyfriend Steve rather than Captain America. Captain America can not be argued with when he's concerned for the health of one of his team members. Her boyfriend Steve can hopefully be talked back around to his customary sanity levels.

The question of who will be showing up to this conversation is resolved when Steve exhales and his shoulders slump as he meets her eyes. "I'm going crazy, aren't I?"

Cassie slides in to a seat at the kitchen island. "Just a little," she tells him, holding up one hand with her finger and thumb a few inches apart. "Just like this much. What I'm worried about is an expansion to like, this far." She holds up both hands a complete arms length apart. "I can handle this much," inch again. "This much crazy? Not really."

Steve approaches and takes a seat across the island from her. "You got hurt and I got protective," he says.

"Honey," Cassie interrupts. "You didn't just get protective. You got panicked. You sent over friends to try to distract me and hover for you while you were busy. Then you actively avoided having the conversation we're having right now." She leans forwards and braces her chin on her hands. "You knew something you were doing and reacting to was something we should talk about but you avoided it instead."

She waits while Steve takes in her words, dropping his chin. "You're not wrong," he admits. "I'm sorry. It's just..." he searches for the words he wants and Cassie waits patiently for him to find them. "I'm not used to you being hurt," he says finally.

Cassie reaches forwards and takes one of his hands with both of hers across the counter top. "I've been hurt since we've started dating," she reminds him as gently as she can. "I've broken bones, bled a lot, and gotten concussed. And not to make this situation worse, but I've also been kidnapped by a killer robot. We've fought monsters and battles actually together. So, why is this time different?"

"Nothing was ever permanent before," Steve mutters, fingers twitching and twisting a little between hers as they tangle more tightly together. "You heal. Every time somethings happened to you I've been worried, but it never lasted."

"This won't either," she says firmly. Then she lifts her free hand and cups his cheek so that he'll look at her and not the floor. "It's only lasting a little bit longer." Then she leans over and kisses his forehead. "Bucky thought-" she hesitates and then goes forehead. "Bucky thought that part of the reason you've been so freaked out is because this has been more like me being sick than being hurt. He thought maybe it was bringing up... bad memories."

Steve lets out a puff of breath and then returns her kiss. The next time he speaks, his mouth is still pressed against her skin. "I got shot at. I got _shot_ more than once. I faced flame throwers and bombs, but none of those things ever got as close to killing me as Whooping Cough did. I broke two ribs. Bucky kept me alive."

Cassie turns her head a little and adjusts so that it's more tucked under his chin. "Bucky's a good friend," she agrees. "We had a nice lunch today. He's pretty smart too. Knows you really well. He also mentioned your mom."

Before he answers, Steve reaches out across the counter and lifts, pulling her across the surface and in to his lap. She learned early on in this relationship that Steve finds it easier to talk about subjects he doesn't enjoy when he has personal contact between them. Knowing that, she nuzzles in to his chest and enjoys the feeling of his heart beating under her ear.

"She was a nurse," Steve says. "Eventually she ended up working on a TB ward. We didn't have a lot of money or food and she wasn't much luckier or stronger than me when it came to illness. It didn't take long for her to catch it. She spiked a fever and died over night with me three feet away."

A few things click in tot place. "So the fact that burning off the poison in my system involved having a fever for an extended period of time while I was unconscious was-"

"A nightmare I didn't know I could still have," he finishes. "Yeah. Pretty much."

Thy lapse back in to silence for a few moments before Cassie sits up straight to face Steve fully. "Would it help you at all to know that I don't get sick?" she asks. "Godly blood equals godly immune system. I can't catch a normal cold any easier than you can. The only time I've had a remotely human illness was when my own father accidentally gave an entire camp Hay Fever."

Steve tilts his head as though examining the state of his own thoughts now that that new piece of information has been assimilated. His fingers, as they so often do when they sit like this, have made their way to the ends of her hair as he thinks. "Okay," he says finally. "Okay. I think that helps."

Cassie nods once in acknowledgement. "Good. Then it will also help you to know that the only reason I spiked a fever at all was from the Nectar I had to drink to treat it, and my own healing magic. Godly healing takes energy and energy means heat. The fever was not illness or a reaction to the poison itself. Also, the creatures with venom potent enough to cause that much damage can be counted on one hand. The only thing worse than Chimera is Pit Scorpion venom, and I managed to heal that for Percy when I was thirteen."

She reaches up to curl the fingers of one of her hands around the edge of his jaw. "I know that you trust me. You know I can take care of myself in fights and that I'm capable of protecting myself. So, trust that I know what I'm doing when it comes to my own recovery. I won't push myself when I shouldn't, but you can't hover all the time or make our friends do it. It's impractical, and will inevitably drive me nuts."

Steve releases a deep breath and then leans down a little to be able to kiss her. It's a gentle thing. The lightest touch of warm lips against hers, and the softness of it is at odds with the way his arms are wrapped so firmly around her back and sides. Cassie doesn't mind. This combination of sensations and gestures is a more honest representation of their relationship than forced lightness.

The kiss extends for several long moments and Cassie leans in to it, trusting Steve to keep them balanced on the island stool. "I do trust you," he murmurs against her mouth. "And I know you can handle anything. You're... amazing. And I know you've lived a lot of your life fighting all the time and dealing with attacks. It's just hard knowing that when they do happen, I can't help you."

"You do help," Cassie tells him. "You help because I know that whenever I have to fight, I'm fighting for something besides me." She leans up to kiss him again. "Trust me. I'm way to invested in finding out what our future's going to be like to die on you."

For a moment, Steve's eyes flicker as a shadow seems to pass behind them. Cassie thinks she knows what the flicker is about. Steve's already lived through losing everyone he loves once. The idea of losing anyone else must be horrifying.

She has lost enough herself to know that.

The arm wrapped around her tightens a little and Cassie allows the tug. Though in all honesty, she doesn't actually know what space between them Steve had thought existed between them before. Regardless, Steve's arm is more comfortable and probably less yielding than the marble of the kitchen island.

"You know I fight to come home to you to," he tells her. "I have been for a while. I think since that first mission I had at Thanksgiving. I didn't even really know you at that point, but I knew I wanted to. I wanted to get the chance to talk to you more."

"I am a great conversationalist," she agrees. Cassie smiles up at him. "Wanna tell me about it and explore the more from the couch? I know we both have good balance, but this seating arrangement seems needlessly precarious."

He manages to smile back as he glances at how they're seated like he's failed to notice their situation until just now. "That could be arranged. Hold on."

Instead of letting Cassie do something simple and normal like, oh you know, walk, Steve keeps her scooped up against his chest as he stands and goes over to the couch.

"You know what no one likes?" she says casually as she resettles against the arm of the sofa. "No one likes a show off Rogers."

Steve shrugs. "If scoring super strength can't be used to impress my girlfriend, then what's the point in having it?"

Cassie hums like he's thinking it over. "Hmmm... I think there was something on the super soldier box about like, defending the weak, holding the forces of darkness at bay, beating back the ungodly evil threatening to swallow the world, spreading democracy, protecting freedoms for the oppressed, stuff like that."

All credit to Steve, he's managed to master the art of the poker face in recent times. "Right..." he drags the word out, letting it trail. "I could have sworn there was something in there about impressing girls though."

"Maybe it was in the fine print?" Cassie suggests, holding back a smile.

"That must have been it," he agrees, knitting their fingers together again. "I like to read contracts thoroughly."

At that Cassie nods. "Reyna does tell me that's important. It took her like four hours to read her employment contract when Pepper hired her."

"How long did it take you to read yours?" he asks.

Cassie laughs. "My initial contract to work here was a single text conversation with Tony. The only thing I read before signing was my budget, paycheck, housing benefits, and insurance. Pepper's name was on a lot of the documents. I figured nothing in it could be that bad if she'd okayed it. How long did it take you to read yours?"

Steve hesitates. "Do you mean the initial contract with the army, the one I signed with SHIELD, or the new one with Stark?"

"Any and all," Cassie says.

He blushes a pale and lovely shade of pink that Cassie wishes she could immortalize on film to show the general public who still seem convinced that Steve is more unshakable icon than flesh and blood human being. "I didn't actually read the first one with the SSR," he admits. "I just signed it. I wanted to fight and that was the only way I could do it. Besides, I didn't expect to be around to deal with legal consequences if there were any. I took eight hours to read through and understand the SHIELD contract."

The full weight of what that must mean sinks in and Cassie has to giggle a bit before she manages to smooth out her expression. "And um, what exactly did that contract have to say about crashing a helicarrier in to the building and dumping the entire data network on to the internet?"

"Nothing good," he admits. "But I normally consider a contract with my employer voided after said employer tries to assassinate me and decimate the population of the planet."

"That's good," she agrees, reaching for the throw blanket hanging over the back of the couch and draping it over them. "You should make sure that that provision gets added to all future contracts. Just to have it in writing." Steve doesn't answer verbally, but he won't quite meet her eyes and the pink flush that had started in his cheeks has now spread down his neck and over the tops of his ears. "Oh my gods," Cassie says, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth. "You totally did that didn't you? Somewhere in your Stark contract there is a paragraph saying you get to do whatever you want if he tries to kill you."

Finally, finally, finally, that gets him to all out grin. "It seemed like a good idea."

It is at this point that Cassie dissolves in to a puddle of laughter.

The following days are a blur of sorting out all of her backlogged work and coordinating the trip to Camp. It's harder than it might be because calling Camp has to be done very carefully due to high concentrations of magic and demigod power. Staying on the phone for any extended period of time is dangerous so the conversations have to happen in increments lasting no longer than ten minutes.

She, Meg, and Reyna also have to coordinate together with different members of the Hecate cabin to get rudimentary warding in place. For an extra kick, Cassie puts in phone calls to the Kane siblings. They're a bit more in touch with gods on a day to day basis given that one is their pet cat, so they're pretty up to date on working out godly magical protection.

Normally it would be a pretty big risk to criss cross between Greek and Egyptian godly magic, but Cassie's always had a bit of an in when it comes to Egyptian gods. They happen to have a thing for sun magic which is one thing that Cassie has always had in spades. She earned a particular friendship with the goddess Bast by forming a bubble of sunshine around her while she napped in cat form.

That friendship pays off in spades when it gets a thin layer of cloaking magic laid over the Tower to make it harder for monsters to find.

Meg and Cassie even grit their teeth and get themselves together to make a very risky Iris Message call to Cassie's own father. Iris Messages to gods are always a bit of a crap shoot. For one thing, it's always possible that a god caught unaware will be in their true form when called and blind or vaporize you through the magical connection. For another thing, their are all kinds of awkward possibility for what the gods could be doing when you called them.

Apollo is a particular risk in this area.

Outside of those potential complications, they have to deal with the inherent risk of asking a god to do or provide anything as a favor. Hardly anything ever comes free of charge when it comes to dealing with the godly half of their family. In fact, any human asking a god for anything was likely to come out of the encounter thoroughly screwed.

Thankfully, this request can be eased by the fact that Apollo is still partially obligated to help Meg if she asks owing to the indentured service bond. It also helps that apart from a few notable exceptions during special circumstances, Cassie has very rarely asked her father for anything. She's also completed several quests already in her fathers name and in general has scored some good will.

At any rate, they've got a light net of basic protection thrown over the building by the time they leave it to make their visit to Camp Half-Blood with Steve, Bucky, Pepper, Tony, and most importantly Katya. The Tower will be a safer home for all of them with the new enchantments in place, and these are words that they will be able to reestablish once the Avengers & Co move upstate.

The drive down to Long Island is one of the stranger road trips Cassie's ever been on, and considering the fact that she once traversed a large portion of the country being flown by a gigantic metal angel that talked, that's saying something.

She wonders what happened to those statues. They had pretty muted ditched them in San Francisco with a large flock of unperturbed pigeons and highly confused homeless people. She hopes they lived happy and fulfilling lives.

Could sentient metal angels with overly shiny toes have happy and fulfilling lives? Could your life ever be unfulfilled? Did the metal angels even have emotions?

These are the questions that spin themselves around Cassie's mind when she reflects too hard on the events that her life is actually comprised of.

Part of the ridiculousness comes from the fact that their is no godly way to get four demigods, two super soldiers, one CEO, one billionaire-genius-playboy-philanthropist, and one speedster (Pietro decides to come along on the trip at the last second which Cassie suspects has a lot to do with Meg informing him that he'll be coming with them weather he likes it or not) in to one car. None of them are actually clowns, contortionists, or magicians. The magicians are in Brooklyn.

It's also imperative that each car they take has at least one demigod in it to get through the magical borders around the camp. It would be really annoying to drive all the way to Long Island only to have half their group magically transported fifty miles out of their way. Plus it's hard to give directions to what looks like a random strawberry farm in the middle of Long Island.

Eventually they end up having Bucky and Reyna in one of Stark's stretch vehicles with Tony, Pepper, and Katya. Cassie, Steve, and Meg take a perfectly normal car from the motor pool. Pietro simply runs laps along the highway next to the car and occasionally stops next to them during traffic slow downs for Meg to pass him snacks out the window from a cooler in the back seat.

Steve drives and Cassie sits in the passenger seat playing D.J with a mix of music freshly downloaded to her phone. The phone is a good source to use to help Steve catch up with things because the selection of music is so completely randomized. Meg provides snacks to the entire car and handles giving Reyna prompting directions over the phone after they get separated by a line of traffic.

It takes them nearly three hours to get to the bottom of Half-Blood Hill and Pietro is bouncing around like he's been waiting for hours already despite the fact that he's been zipping back and forth to the car for directions every five minutes. Cassie can only imagine that his and Wanda's mother must have had the patience of a saint to deal with him even before the enhancements. Hyperactivity, thy name is no longer Leo Valdez. Thy name is now Pietro Maximoff.

"Uh, why are we stopped in the middle of farm territory Sacagawea?" Tony asks with customary tact the moment his car door is shut behind him.

Cassie jut smiles at him benignly. "Well housing, feeding, and caring for nearly a hundred kids at a time doesn't happen cheaply. You can't exactly charge poor displaced orphan demigods for needing a place to live in safety, so we fund the camp with strawberry exports to the city. Mr. D being around makes them grow like crazy and the dryads don't mind doing the picking."

That's when Meg pipes in. "Not to mention the highly valuable contributions from my sibs over in Cabin Four." She fist pumps. "Agriculture for the win!"

Tony narrows his eyes at her. "Meg, you have now reached the point where your sarcasm is so finely tuned I can no longer tell when you're being serious." He holds out a hand for her to shake. "Well played."

Meg shakes and Cassie fits off making an audible noise of distress.

Reyna on the other hand, doesn't bother holding back. Instead she groans and begins walking up the hill. "Let's go," she urges. "Any hike it better than witnessing this ungodly alliance."

It's pointless to argue with anything you agree with so Cassie nods and begins to follow, gesturing for everyone else to come along. Pietro zips to the top of the hill and back four times before they reach the crest. However, they soon reach the pine tree that marks the Camp boundary.

Katya makes a frightened squeaking sound and grabs on to Cassie's hand, squeezing tightly. "There's a dragon," she whispers in a terrified voice.

Cassie almost swears under her breath for not remembering to warn the smaller girl but checks herself just in time. "Hey, it's okay," she assures. "Pelios is a friendly dragon. Do you see that gold thing up in the branches? That bit that looks like a shiny blanket?" Katya nods. "Well that's the Golden Fleece. It helps keep the valley down there safe. Pelios guards it for us. We got him when I was fourteen."

The daughter of Hephaestus doesn't look completely convinced, but she nods and lets go of Cassie's hand to go back over to Pepper who is squinting at the pine tree. "I think I see a pile of electric cables," she says. "That'll be the Mist thing right?"

Reyna nods. "Yeah what's actually there is-" she breaks off after taking another look at the now huge golden dragon looped lazily around the base of the tree trunk. As she watches, Pelios snores out a puff of smoke. "Never mind," Reyna says hurriedly. "Just go with the idea that whatever is there is a security measure and is completely harmless to us."

Apparently Tony isn't quite ready to let the subject go, but he's latched on to a different subcategory of the story. "Uh, excuse me, Golden Fleece? As in Argonauts? Symbol of authority and kingship, that golden fleece?"

"That's the one," Cassie confirms. "Annabeth, Percy, and I went and got it when I was fourteen. Now it's healing magic helps keep the magical borders around the camp strong. Plus it keeps all the plant life in the valley healthy."

Katya raises her hand like she's in school which Cassie appreciates, but doesn't actually find necessary. However, this whole experience must be a little overwhelming for her. If pretending she's on a school field trip helps her keep a handle on things, Cassie's more than willing to play along. "Yeah Katya?"

She puts her hand back down and asks, "Why's it in a tree if it's magic?"

To answer the question, Cassie crouches down in the warm grass so that she can talk to Katya from the same level. "Before I first came to Camp when I was your age, they used different magic to protect the borders. I was with some friends and we were being chased by monsters. My friend Thalia was hurt and she decided that rather than running, she'd stay behind to protect us so that Annabeth, Luke, Grover, and I could get to safety. Right before she died, her father Zeus turned her in to a pine tree, this pine tree actually," she points to the pine next to them.

"For a long time after that, her spirit protected the boundary. But years later someone tried to poison the tree which damaged the borders. Obviously we couldn't let the tree die so a few of us went on a quest to get the Fleece to heal the poison. It worked really well and brought Thalia back, and now the magic protects the border instead of her."

It's the most kid friendly way she can think of to tell that story. Somewhere down the line at Camp someone is sure to tell Katya the unedited version, but hopefully that'll wait a few years. It had been a traumatic enough set of events to actually live through, no one needs to share the nightmares with her who didn't gain them through unhappy experience.

Thankfully, Katya doesn't seem to have any other questions. Pepper and Tony are probably a different story. Maybe she'll be able to pawn those off on Chiron and the nice and helpful orientation film instead of retellings the entirety of her life story before the age of twenty-two. She's told Steve and that's enough.

Reyna and Meg have their own stories.

It's at that moment that Pietro bounces back in to view. "Why are we still waiting at the top of this hill?" he asks. "There is something down below it right?"

That's Reyna's cue to spin to Meg. "Ms. McCaffrey, do the honors. Dr. Morgenstern, theme music!"

Cassie rolls her eyes, but knows her father in particular would enjoy the theatrics so she pulls out her phone and plays a drum roll. When it ends Meg cups her hands around her mouth and shouts upwards at the cloudless blue sky. "I, Meg McCaffrey give all none-demigods present permission to enter Camp!"

As it always does, thunder rumbles and Cassie, Reyna, and Meg shuffle the rest of their group hurriedly across the boundary line. The sound rolls across the valley again as the magical borders seal themselves behind them. She might be imagining it, but Cassie thinks she can almost feel the wave of power as it falls across the valley.

It takes her a moment to realize that the entire group has gone silent as they stare down at Camp Half-Blood.

The silence breaks when Bucky lets out a long, low, whistle. "Well I'll be damned."

Cassie pauses and looks down at the Camp. As she does so, she's trying to imagine that she's seeing it for the first time. She has to admit, it's pretty impressive.

From this height, it's possible to see campers paddling serenely along the canoe lake and the glow of the lava pouring down the maximum difficulty course on the climbing wall. A rhythmic banging noise echoes, signaling that the forge is currently in use. One of the cabins must be in the middle of an early morning arts and crafts period. The colors of the chariots going around the track indicate that the Iris, Athena, and Aries kids are having a race.

The cabins sit in their familiar omega with the ceremonial fire glowing in the middle. The white marble of the dining hall pavilion gleams in the morning light and the smell of strawberries wafts through the air as dryads, a few kids from the Demeter cabin, and two new daughters of Dionysus Cassie's heard about but not met yet wander through the fields. Pan pipe music played by the satyr drifts to them on the wind.

And there in the heart of the valley sits the Big House. The building hasn't at any point changed in Cassie's memory. It's still a resplendent three story farmhouse with sky blue walls and snowy white trim.

"Everyone," Cassie says softly, leaning her head sideways on to Steve's chest. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

Steve wraps an arm around her and rubs a small circle in to the skin of her shoulder with his thumb. Cassie lets herself lean in to him a bit more. She hasn't visited in a while and she's not necessarily sure that she can put a name to everything she's feeling right now. Hopefully she'll be able to sort it all out over the course of the day. Regardless, she appreciates that Steve gives her the headspace and quiet she needs to work it out as they all make their way down the hill to the Big House where Chiron sits in his wheelchair waiting for them.

It's a bit odd to see him this way since while at Camp Chiron generally goes around in full centaur form unless he's injured. However, it makes it much easier to step forward in to the hug fold her in to in greeting. "Hello My Dear," he says, just as she has since she was eight years old, and Cassie takes an extra moment to soak in the familiar smells of coffee, parchment, and fresh hay that always cling to him.

Cassie's never hugged her grandfather in her entire life. She's hugged her father once ever in twenty-five years and that was right after she'd helped defeat an entire Titan army. Chiron is the closest thing she's got.

She backs up pretty quickly so that Reyna and Meg can have their turns for a hug and when Chiron's created them all he wheels his chair backwards and regards them all. "I believe there are some introductions to be made."

Meg jumps in to speak first and grabs Pietro by the hand. This is a pretty brave move seeing as Pietro is nearly vibrating with excitement and a longing to zip around the Camp to take in all the new sights. Given that Pietro is completely capable of super speed, grabbing on to him has the potential to really freaking hurt.

"This is Pietro Maximoff," she introduces. "He made a really shitty life choice and let Nazi scientists experiment on him so now he's got super speed. I brought him because everyone else was brining someone and I thought he'd keep me form getting bored on the drive up."

Chiron's mouth twitches at the corners as he fights a smile. He extends his hand to Pietro and the two of them shake. "Lovely to meet you I'm sure," he says.

Pietro nods, bouncing a little on his toes. "Meg's mentioned you. You have some excellent space here. Good for running."

"Indeed," Chiron replies neutrally. "And on that note," he turns to Meg. "Why don't you show Mr. Maximoff the Hermes Cabin's new running trail? They've added nearly twelve miles to the track going through the woods. Just do please remember to mind the giant scorpions. We never did manage to recover all of them form the last training exercise three years ago."

At the mention of the running trail Pietro perks up. "Giant scorpions?" he checks. "Well this I must see." He steps back and scoops Meg clear of the ground before taking off at a run that just barely stays in the visually trackable speed range.

Chiron leans up in his chair a bit to watch them go. "Those powers are remarkable," he says out loud. "Though I must say the vibration level is somewhat concerning. I worried he might wear a hole in the ground if left in one place for too long." Then he turns to Tony and Pepper. "And I don't believe either of you needs much introduction. You are rather remarkable individuals yourselves. I understand our new camper is your adoptive daughter?" Katya steps forwards shyly and Chiron gives her a kindly smile. "Well hello."

"Yes this is Katya," Pepper says, placing a hand on Katya's shoulder.

"Hello," Katya says, waving a little. "Meg said you were a centaur."

Chiron smiles. "Ms. McCaffrey was telling the truth. I am in fact, a centaur. However, when meeting parents I normally find it best to stay in my more mundane form. It makes for a less startling first impression, and allows me to more easily fit inside the house for the information session and the showing of the orientation film."

"I've still never seen that," Reyna comments.

"Me neither," Cassie agrees. "And I lived here year round for ten years."

This is where Tony interrupts. "Wow wow wow. You're half horse."

You couldn't train hyperactive teenaged demigods for thousands of years without developing inhumanly high levels of patients. Those thousands of years of practice must be coming in to play now. "Indeed I am my boy. However, given your humanity, I believe the Mist might interfere with you seeing my true form were I do reveal it. Therefore, I'm afraid you will need to take the word of the demigods among you."

Steve is frowning. "Hold on," he says. "Hold on. I recognize you. I met you once back in 1944! You were at one of those stupid USO shows they made me do to sell bonds. You bought a poster and had me sign it."

At that Chiron smiles. "Indeed. I followed your career with great interest for quite some time. I went to the show you are referring to in order to investigate a report from one of my satyrs. He believed it might be possible you were a child of Mars. It is not so unusual for them to experience drastic physical growth overnight. And they occasionally have quite exceptional strength close to the kind that you exhibited. I had my doubts, but thought it was worth investigating and had an excellent impression of you upon our meting. I kept the poster in the hopes that someday, your potential would be put to good use. Today it hangs in my office above my desk. I must say, I am gratified that you remembered me."

Steve turns pink and looks vaguely uncomfortable in the way he does whenever someone gives him thanks or compliments that are truly heartfelt. "I'm glad I made a good impression," he says sheepishly. "I wasn't exactly at my best during those shows."

Chiron waves the comment aside and shakes Steve's hand. "Think nothing of it Dear Boy. You were politeness itself and all things grow with time." Next he turns to Bucky and holds out his hand again. "And you must be James Barnes."

"Bucky," Bucky offers. "I prefer Bucky."

"Noted," Chiron says. "Cassandra, Reyna, why don't the two of you show Steve and Bucky around the camp while I give our guests some information and answer any extra questions they may have. We can all catch up again at lunch time."

The suggestion is a good one so the four of them leave the porch of the Big House and split off in groups of two. Reyna takes Bucky off to view the weapons range to inspect the target shooting. Cassie leads Steve away towards the Omega of cabins.

"Originally we just had the central 'U' around the brazier and it was just the twelve gods and goddesses on the Olympian Council," she tells him. "Gods were the odd numbers on that side and goddesses were over there with the even numbers. We added on after the Titan War and Percy made the gods swear to acknowledge all of their children. The wings were Annabeth's idea."

Steve stops just in front of the fire and revolves slowly on the spot, taking everything in. "I can guess what some of the main ones are," he says, and then goes on to correctly identify the cabins belonging to Demeter, Hera, Zeus, Aphrodite, Ares, Poseidon, and Hades. "I'm not so sure about that one."

Cassie checks where he's pointing. "That's Hermes," she says. "Cabin Eleven. It's less crowded than it used to be. Before we built the extra cabins, all the undetermined kids were put in there. You could tell which kids were actually Hermes' children because they were the ones who always won at footraces and poker. Dionysus' Cabin Twelve, and the Athena kids are over there in Cabin Six. The one with the owl over the door. Hephaestus is Nine, that one there that looks like a bunker. Artemis' is that log one. You can't tell now, but it glows silver at night."

Steve doesn't speak, but his eyes flick around the buildings as she points, taking in each one. If Cassie knows how his mind works as well as she thinks she does, he's building a mental map of the Camp layout and beginning background contingency plans. "So that means Cabin Seven there is..."

"Yeah," Cassie finishes for him with a smile. "That's home." She takes his hand and pulls lightly. "Come on. I'll show you."

The solid gold glow of the outside of the cabin seems to intensify the closer they get and Cassie catches Steve blinking rapidly in the brightening shine. At the door Cassie releases Steve's hand to press her palm against the wooden door. The yew swings gently at her touch and Cassie steps inside, leading Steve along behind her.

The inside of the cabin hasn't changed since Cassie left it. Her old bunk is still made and tidy, exactly as she left it. Will's selection of texts on Apollo for new campers to reference is still on it's shelves. It probably helps that Apollo has shockingly not had any new camp aged children recently so no one new has moved in. Now the only campers left in the cabin full time are Kayla and Austin.

Each bunk is made with clean white sheets and fluffy duvets including the cot in the middle kept available for injured campers. Delos flowers grow in happy yellow blooms along each window along with red and purple hyacinths. Rough wood beams break up the white plaster and host hooks for coats, weapons, and medical supplies. Felix's spare trombone is propped up in one corner and their's a trunk at the end of each bed for clothes and personal possessions.

The whole room smells like fresh laundry and sage.

Cassie twirls dramatically around the room and then hops backwards on to her own bunk. "Home sweet home," she says. "This was my bunk. I was the only girl when I first got here so I didn't have an overhead bunk. The track up there on the ceiling was for the curtain. The boys put it up so I could have privacy. That's why Kayla's bunk is the only one nearby."

Steve examines the entire cabin with careful eyes. "Why- I mean- With all the stories about Apollo..."

She lets him try to maneuver around to a polite and tasteful way for him to ask the question he's clearly thinking of for a count of thirty seconds. If he can figure out a way to do it she'll be really impressed and she kind of wants to see if it's possible. At thirty five Steve shrugs once looking sheepish and blushes bright red so Cassie takes pity on him.

"You mean, if my dad is such a slut how come he doesn't have more kids?" she asks with one eyebrow raised.

He turns a bit redder but organizes his features in to a blank-ish mask and nods. "Well I wasn't going to put it like _that."_

Cassie smiles and shifts further towards the head of the bed, patting the foot of it for Steve to sit down which he does. It's surreal seeing him there, sitting on the end of her bed in the cabin she had grown up in. She takes a moment to absorb it and smiles, shaking her head a little as the image processes.

"Well, the simplest answer to your question is that my dad isn't picky," she says. "He likes goddesses, nature spirits other gods, human women, human men. There are lots of different possible romantic combinations for him, and only one of those combos results in demigod children. And Will and I grew up and moved away and Lee and Michael died in the war. Which was fairly energy consuming for all the gods, and then my dad was in hiding for a year, and then human for another one which didn't leave a lot of time for having affairs. I think the humanity stint also kind of proved to my dad how much being his kid sucks, so he's been careful for the last couple years."

Steve manages to crack a smile. "Like godly _Freaky Friday_."

Cassie groans. "Whoever introduced you to the acting career of Lindsey Lohan has _so much_ to answer for. You had literally seventy years of pop culture to catch up on and that's what someone picked to show you."

"It's probably mostly my own fault," Steve muses. "When I first came out of the ice after New York I didn't really have a system for catching up. I just read tabloids and newspapers and worked with the internet. A few months after the battle Lohan's name popped up a lot and I made the mistake of asking Tony who she was. He showed me _The Parent Trap_ first, which I didn't have a problem with. Then he put in _Freaky Friday._ I think mostly just to watch what would happen."

This story has the effect of making Cassie bang her head in to one of the wooden beams in the wall. Steve laughs and reaches out, pressing his palm in to the wall behind him so that it's between her head and the wall. Her eyes are shut so she can't see his grin, but she feels it against her mouth when he kisses her.

She opens her mouth below his and lets the kiss slide in to something deeper, getting a good grip on Steve's shirt and using it to pull him closer. In a truly impressive display of core strength, Steve straightens out fluidly, bracing most of his weight on his hands, spreading it between the headboard and the wall. She plants her feet and hooks one knee around his hip, folding their bodies together as a tiny gasp escapes her mouth and the groan Steve makes is something she can feel under her fingers where they're pressed against his chest.

The thought that she's making out with her boyfriend on her childhood bed suddenly makes it's way through her minds and she laughs once against his mouth.

"What?" Steve asks, smiling. Smiling because she's happy, and that makes him happy too.

"Uh-uh," Cassie murmurs, slipping one hand up and in to the soft hair at the base of his neck, scraping her fingernails lightly against the skin there and loving the way Steve's eyes close as he shivers. "Nothing," she says, leaning up and brushing two more kisses against his mouth, feather light and feverish. "Just thinking-" She breaks down as Steve catches her mouth with his again.

When they break apart to breath Steve moves sideways, his lips burning a warm path towards the corner of her jaw. "What?" He's gasping, and Cassie is bizarrely proud that she's capable of rendering the world's best soldier breathless. "What were you thinking?"

It takes Cassie a moment to track down exactly what it was she _had_ been thinking. When she finds the thought again it makes her giggle once and Steve dips down, starting at her shoulder and inching along her collar bone. Concentrating at all right now is very nearly impossible.

"There used to be this rule against any campers being left in a cabin alone together if they were dating," she manages to say. "It wasn't a rule I ever thought I was going to break."

Steve gives a short laugh, the breath puffing out against the skin above her clavicle. Cassie laughs too and he rolls to the side to lay next to her, covering his face with his hands. "Oh god," he mumbles, voice muffled by his arms.

"Gods," Cassie corrects. "There's a lot of them here."

They're both still laughing when Austin opens the cabin door. He does ask what they're laughing about, but neither of them can really explain. This is because they don't actually know. It's very possible they need some more sleep and a day of trivial activities.

To his immense credit, Austin simply shrugs and goes over to grab his trombone. "Whatever, I'm gonna go practice. Cass, Chiron said if I saw you to tell you to meet him and Mr. D at the Big House to talk about wards."

Cassie pulls herself together and gets up, wrapping her little brother in a hug and ruffling up his hair despite the fact that she has to reach up to do so. "Thanks Austin. Hey, make sure you tell me when you're moving in to your dorm at Juliard. I'll help you move in and we'll get some lunch."

"Sounds great," he says, returning her hug. Gods is it strange to think that Austin, little Austin is eighteen. "We should go to that place in the base of that hotel with the awesome steak fries."

She nods and steps back. "Sounds great. Love you little brother."

He flashes her the same easy grin that so many of her brothers have inherited from their father and steps back to go back out the door. "I'll see you in a month." He waves at Steve on the way out. "Hiya Captain. Nice to meet the guy who loves my sister. Will says your nice, so just keep that up I guess, and remember that music stands make great weapons to beat people over the head with." He sends Cassie a wink. "Love you too sis."

Then he's gone, leaving Cassie staring after him, shaking her head. "Gotta love little brothers," she mutters. "You know I used to sing that kid to sleep? Yeah he was this adorable little eight year old with huge brown eyes and messy curls. I was taller than him until he turned twelve." She gestures to Steve. "C'mon. We'll go get the wards for the Tower sorted."

 **A/N: So that's part one of the visit to Camp. I've got most of what part 2 will be outlined but haven't got to writing it yet. I'm moving to England for school in a week and the amount of packing I'm doing right now is absolutely insane so I've been pretty busy. I'll get the next chapter up in the next week or so and after that there might be a bit of a gap while I get settled. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed! Tell me what you think! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer: I am the very definition of a broke college student right now. This necessarily means that I own absolutely nothing that you can recognize from reading this story. If I owned any of this, I would not be a broke college student. Or at least, I wouldn't be broke. Don't sue me because I own absolutely nothing and am making no money from writing this. My only reward is the feedback high I get from reviews and the psychotherapy I get from cathartic writing.**

Meeting with Chiron and Mr. D doesn't take anywhere near as long as Cassie had thought it would. The fact that Mr. D disdains the very idea of speaking to Steve upon hearing that he can't get drunk helps matters as it means that most of the conversation is carried out by Chiron. In the end, Chiron, Cassie, Meg, and Reyna divide a plan with some structural input from Steve and Bucky and Mr. D. simply sighs and approves the plan on behalf of the Olympian council.

Pietro, for his part, is occupying both himself and the youngest campers by running laps through the camp carrying the small children. Occasionally a loud squeal of laughter followed by a blur of silver will flash past. He stops twice while they're talking, and both times Meg shoves half a sandwich in to his mouth before he vanishes again.

Stark shows up before the planning is completed to add in some ideas he's been working on to increase building security. Some of his ideas are actually very well thought out and might be usable with a bit of godly modification. Pepper, he says, is still with Katya.

The two of them are both still gone and Pietro is gods know where by the time they wrap up their meeting. The campers are headed to their last activities before the conch shell horn will sound to call them to dinner. All is as it should be.

No sooner has that thought crossed her mind than the normal buzz of camp activity is interrupted by shouting. Looking towards the noise, Cassie sees two campers chasing a third along the valley. She just has time to process the image before the camper being chased passes where she stands with the others, cackling wildly.

"You are so dead Callum!" shrieks one of his pursuers. It's a girl of about thirteen with shiny dark hair and nearly black eyes. The boy she's been chasing is several inches taller than her and is using his longer legs to his advantage. Still, the girl is carrying a sharp, curved, knife and Cassie knows that this situation could very easily go bad fast.

With that experience in mind, Cassie steps sideways to block the girl's progress, gripping her arm above the wrist with one hand and prying the weapon free with the other. "Wow now," she chides. "Don't run with a knife unless you're going to kill something."

The girl glares up at her. "I _am_ going to kill something!" she protests. "Callum!"

"Good luck with that," the boy who must be named Callum taunts. He yelps and then shuts up pretty fast when the metal arm Bucky is using to keep him where he is tightens. "Ow! Not cool dude!"

The third player in this little scene arrives a moment later. Cassie is surprised when she recognizes him as Jacob Calloway, the son of Athena she had ferried to camp with Carmen Hollow way back before SHIELD had fallen. He's older and taller now, but still has the same grey eyes that he shares with so many of his siblings.

"Mal!" he pants as he arrives. "Why'd you run off? You didn't even let me finish saying-"

With a growl of frustration Mal wrenches herself out of Cassie's grip. Cassie let's her go, wondering what the story behind this little drama is. Mal glares at everyone in turn before turning her back on them to talk to Jacob. "He needs to pay," she states. "You _know_ I'm right."

"Fine," he agrees. "But plan it and pay it back in kind. Don't stab him! Besides, if you let him run away you'll never get him."

Mal nearly stamps her foot but seems to catch herself first. "He made all of the water in the showers freezing- Literally! No one in my cabin can turn on a faucet without it starting to snow inside! The only thing equal for that is maiming!"

From a few feet away, Cassie hears the boy named Callum scoff. "Lighten up Mal," he says.

This is not the right thing to say.

Mal shrieks again and resumes her efforts to get at her target, launching herself bodily at Cassie. She's prepared for the impact but Jacob is quicker, stepping between them and holding up his hands placatingly. "If you maim him he'll never learn," he says. "A taste of his own medicine is better. It's more balanced."

If Cassie's suspicions about this girl's parentage are right, that's absolutely the right thing to say.

Sure enough, Mal deflates some. Instead of attacking again, she relaxes forwards in to a hug that Jacob just manages to maneuver to catch her in to. She's murmuring something Cassie can't hear, and Jacob is nodding in response.

"Okay," Cassie says, because it looks like the situation can now b brought under control. "Senior Councilor time."

"I'm a senior councilor," Callum pipes in.

Cassie hears Bucky sigh and mutter. "Seriously kid?"

Reyna, on the other hand, steps up next to Cassie. "Senior Senior Councilor time," she revises. "Also praetor and senate representative time. Each of you will explain the situation in an orderly manor. To begin with, we will state the facts as we currently know them. You will then contribute al missing details. Meg, Cassie, and I will form your panel of judges. Rachel, as ever, will remain impartial."

Following her example, Cassie moves over to sit on the deck railing of the Big House. "We will begin with the complaint," she says grandly, mustering a bit of her inherited theatricality. "Callum, son of..." she raises her eyebrows at the boy and waits for him to fill in.

Bucky releases him so that he can move and Callum gives her a grin that is at once alien and almost heart wrenchingly familiar. It is a grin that echoes through the memories that make much of her childhood. It's Luke's grin, and even before he announces himself as a son of Hermes Cassie knows that that's what he is.

"Councilor for Cabin Eleven when the Stolls aren't here."

"Right," Cassie says. "And you decided to use your authority to completely ice the water in one of the other cabins. Accuser, please stand forwards and announce yourself."

Mal stalks forward, chin up and voice completely steady when she speaks. "I am Mallory Vendettis. The cabin so egregiously wronged was mine," she announces. "Cabin number sixteen. The house of Nemesis."

Meg gives voice to the reaction that Cassie and Reyna both manage to repress and groans. "Really?" she mutters at Callum. "All the cabins available, and the one in charge of vengeance is the one you go for? There are like twenty other options out there."

"Callum, do you deny that this is what you did?" Reyna asks, taking things in hand once again.

Callum grins again, not looking the least bit ashamed. "Nope," he says, popping the 'p'. "It was hilarious. Besides, now they know that some of their security measures can be circumvented. They should be thanking me for demonstrating the problem."

Cassie carefully controls her expression to keep from laughing and raises an eyebrow at Jacob. "Anything to add?"

He shakes his head. "I'm just a witness," he says. "Not even really that. I didn't actually see anything."

"Okay," Reyna says, clapping her hands together. "Here's what we're going to do."

Before she can continue Mallory puts her hand up. "Can I maim him? Just a little? I swear he'd live. You don't need all ten fingers. Or toes."

"Why is there so much maiming?" Cassie hears Stark wonder out loud. "This is the most discussion about it I've ever heard in a single twenty-four hour period. Is that normal here?"

No one answers him.

"No maiming," Cassie tells Mallory. "Like capture the flag. Maim without permission and lose your desert privileges until after the end of summer bead ceremony. This includes illicit snacks and stolen chocolate."

The girl looks disappointed but not actually surprised as Reyna continues. "Mallory and her cabin have been wronged and in the nature of their cabin the scales must be balanced. Therefore, they are permitted one act of retribution." Reyna places special emphasis on the word 'one' to make sure her meaning is clear. "This act will not involve any bodily harm or permanent physical alteration. It may occur at any time Mallory deems appropriate."

All involved parties nod their agreement and something strikes Cassie.

"Hang on," she says before the group can break apart. She looks at Callum. "It's an interesting prank," she acknowledges. "But you wouldn't have been able to do it alone. Snow means magic which you don't have the use of. Therefore, you must provide Mallory with a list of your co-conspirators and explain to them what has gone on here and the agreement you've reached. We'll tell Chiron about this before we leave and he'll monitor things."

This pronouncement knocks the grin off of Callum's face a bit and Cassie knows she had guessed correctly. Obviously, whoever helped Callum is someone who scares him a little. Cassie's guessing it's someone from the Hecate cabin given the nature of the trick.

He walks off a little more resignedly and Rachel goes off to tell Chiron what they've done. Stark wanders after Callum to look for Pepper and Katya. Cassie shoots Reyna a look and other girl gets up with a nod, dragging Bucky along after her to keep an eye on Stark to ensure that he doesn't get in to any trouble.

Jacob and Mallory have been talking together again and Cassie catches Mallory saying she's planning to go and consult with a friend from the Nike cabin and Jacob replying that they should bring Carmen as well. Meg hears that too and hops up to go with her. "Carmen's my half sister," she tells Mallory. "I'll go with you and say hi. Tell Pietro where I've gone?" she asks.

Cassie nods.

Then it's just her, Jacob, and Steve left on the porch. When she knows the others are gone, Cassie turns to Jacob with a grin. "Well?" she asks, holding out her arms expectantly. "Do I get a hug?"

Jacob smiles and humors her. He must have hit a growth spurt recently because he's taller than she is. "How are you?" he asks.

"Good," Cassie affirms with a nod. "Busy. Looks like you are too."

"Mal and Callum keep things interesting," Jacob allows. "But they make things fun too. They're actually friends most of the time. Vicky down in the Nike Cabin hangs around with us too. And Carmen. We all try to look after her a bit."

She nods. "That's how it should be," she agrees. "Any quests on the horizon."

Jacob's expression goes more serious. "I've actually done one already," he admits. "With Vic and Mal. Nothing too major. We got in and out fine. Even had a few days to spare on the deadline. Carmen was mad she couldn't come too. I think she got lonely while we were gone. That's why we're friends with Callum now. He gets her laughing."

He talks about the girl like she's a beloved little sister, and hearing that tone warms Cassie's heart.

"Well, keep me updated," she tells him. "I'm only ever an Iris Message away."

Jacob nods and Cassie shoes him off down the hill to go see his friends.

Steve looks at her and Cassie can see his mouth opening up to speak. Unfortunately, he never gets the opportunity. This is because they get interrupted in a rather spectacular fashion as an enormous rainbow chariot drawn by a matched team of huge white pegasi dive bombs them from behind some marginal cloud cover magically manufactured from inside the protective weather proof borders.

Being the highly trained and logical individuals that they are, Cassie and Steve do the practical thing and haul ass out of the way. For Cassie, this involves a high backflip over the porch rail and back on to the deck of the Big House. Steve selects the less dramatic but equally affective dive roll sideways.

Not a moment too soon as it happens.

The horse hooves of the pegasi's equestrian bodies smack in to the ground mere inches from where the two of them had been standing just moments before. A loud whinny pierces the air as manes and tails flick. Steve begins to stand up but Cassie waves for him to stay down. At Camp, where one dive bombing flying chariot went, a second one was sure to follow.

"Hey Cassie!" Butch calls from the driver's side. "How you been?"

Cassie slowly and hesitantly came out of her crouch and waves at the senior counselor of the Iris Cabin. "I've been good Butch. How are things with you? Is the yoga place up and running yet?"

He grins. "Yeah. We've started to build a pretty good customer base."

She's about to congratulate her friend when the second chariot comes charging up the hill towards where they sit. Cassie recognizes the vehicle and the horses drawing it as the one that Aries uses and suddenly the situation becomes a whole lot clearer. The chariot begins it's charge back in to battle and Cassie backs up hurriedly.

"Oops," Butch says calmly. "Looks like I've gotta go. See you later Cass!"

He's gone with a cheerful wave and a powerful downdraft of air from the wings of the horses. Cassie returns the waves and then does a careful inspection of the surrounding area before relaxing once again. Steve doesn't look quite ready to move just yet incase another set of flying horses descends from the sky, and frankly Cassie can't blame him.

She walks over to him. "I think we're okay now," she announces.

Steve stands up looking a little sheepish. There's dirt and bits of grass clinging to his shirt. Cassie reaches out to brush the bits away, stepping up on to her toes to reach the few leaves she can see clinging to his hair. She also gets him to turn a little to make sure that the rest of the dirt is gone.

"Sooooo," he says. "Flying horses. Those are a thing. I really didn't think about being crushed by them."

"Yeah," she says. "I would say not to worry because that doesn't normally happen, but in all honesty, there really is no normal here. There's just stuff you get used to and stuff you don't. It's best to just role with everything." A thought strikes her and she tips her head to the side. "It's not that different form living in the Tower really."

Steve leans down to kiss her once gently and his arms come up to loop loosely around her waist. "Stability isn't something either of us actually have is it?"

This time Cassie stretches to kiss him. When she drops back down she favors him with the softest and sweetest smile she has. "I think we're more stable than we used to be."

"That's true," he says, fingers brushing up her sides and along to cup her shoulders. "We're both very stable."

"Both metaphorically and literally," Cassie says. "We even have like, grown up jobs and everything. We cook meals with protein and pay all of our bills on time. I bet we could even have a mortgage if Tony wasn't providing all of our housing without us having to pay for any of it. I may have no history pre age eighteen, but you must have a pretty reassuring credit card history when it comes to banks."

Steve laughs in that way that means her humor has surprised him somehow. He does that sometimes. Laugh like he's surprised that he's happy.

"I've never checked," he admits. "But I guess I'd probably get a loan pretty easily if I ever needed one."

"Well the government's been giving you backpay for a while so I think it's possible that they still owe you money," Cassie points out. "Interest rates being what they are and everything."

Steve smiles down at her and for a moment the world seems to pause. It's a snap shot kind of memory. An every day moment that is totally and completely happy.

They have to leave at the end of the day, but not before dinner in the pavilion and a few s'mores down at the campfire. Cassie also makes a stop at the Aphrodite Cabin and let's one of Piper's younger brothers trim her hair. When she returns to Steve again later before dinner, he stares at her in confusion for minute as his sensory abilities and soldier's eye for detail analyze her, searching for what's different.

The fact that the answer is approximately three inches of hair is amusing to her. Actually it's impressive to her that he can notice the difference. Her hair length has moved from the just above the top curve of her hip to the bottom of her ribcage.

They all depart just after the sing along. The two greatest surprise talents of the night are Pepper and Pietro by far. Tony also puts in a surprisingly good showing for someone who blasts so much rock and heavy metal in to his ears with as much frequency as he does,

The duck out they pull happens pretty much immediately after that. Cassie's pretty sure that the speed at which they exit is mostly due to a very deep and very real terror within Steve that someone is about to try to make him dance in public. It takes so little time to leave that Pietro doesn't even have the time to start looking impatient.

Katya is half-asleep before they even get to the car and Tony scoops her up to carry her the rest of the way. Still, she'd been chattering excitedly on and off for several hours so Cassie's pretty sure that this little excursion has been a hit. They'll probably manage to arrange a few more visits like this one as well as a trip out to Camp Jupiter next time Pepper and Tony can clear more than a solitary day of free time in a row.

Cassie herself manages to fall asleep leaning against the window of the car on the drive back to the city and wakes up just as Steve pulls in to the parking garage at Stark Tower. She wakes up feeling fuzzy and disoriented and has to stretch before getting out of the car.

She leans on Steve in the elevator up to their apartment. He feels more solid than the elevator wall does. Plus he has the added bonus of giving off heat and being able to hug her.

Once they've back in their apartment Cassie wastes no time in kicking off her shoes and wiggling her toes. "I know I didn't even try to wear heals today, but somehow my toes still feel squished."

"Your feet are disproportionally large for someone your height," Steve says, putting on a mock serious voice.

Cassie lies out on the couch and kicks her feet up, wiggling her toes at him. The blue paint on a few of the nails is chipping away. The part of her that's just a smidgen impulsive is seriously tempted to lean down and pick at it.

"Wider spread of toes," she says. "Better for balancing. And no matter what I have done to myself, my arches have never collapsed. Broken all the bones involved, sure. But no arch collapse requiring special insoles has ever taken place." She shifts around and sits with her legs crossed underneath her to make room for Steve as he comes to join her on the couch. He's carrying two steaming mugs and passes one over to her.

Taking a sip of hers proves the contents to be her favorite licorice tea. It's the best herbal one she has for drinking before bed. It's non-caffeinated which means she can drink a mug of it and then go to sleep when she's done.

She thanks him and Steve just smiles, settling in beside her with one arm draped along the back of the couch behind her. "You know collapsed arches was one of the reasons that the army rejected me before the Serum. I'm not sure exactly where it fell on the list, but I know it made it on there at least once. Along with 'nervous troubles of any sort' which always confused me a little. The least they could have done for me was be a little more specific."

Cassie makes a sound of sympathy and reaches out with the hand she's not using to grip her mug to feel the heartbeat in the pulse at his wrist. "Well, you don't seem nervous now," she comments. "I mean, your heart is a little up."

Steve sets his mug to the side and takes her hand. "I think you've got more to do with that than I do."

See? Steve just says stuff like that sometimes.

He'll say things like that, and look at her like this, and it's so much sincerity and genuine emotion that it feels like her heat is either expanding or being crushed inside her chest.

Emotions like that have to be expressed before they choke you, so Cassie lifts his hand up towards her face and kisses the back of it. It let's out some of the feeling but not all of it which is why she let's their hands drop down to balance on her knee. "I love you too, you know," she tells him. It's the right response for the moment because it's how she feels, and with the right person saying how you feel is really just that simple.

Steve shuts his eyes at her words, breathing in deeply as though he's trying to absorb the moment through his skin, drawing her words in to himself. He leans his face towards hers with his eyes still shut and Cassie takes the initiative to close the gap herself. His mouth slips to cradle her lips with his own and Cassie moves to run her hands along his shoulders. However, as she tries to, Steve's fingers tighten on hers, holding them in place.

He also won't let her break the kiss when she tries to ask what's going on. Instead, he follows her mouth with his own as she moves away and the kiss intensifies. It takes them both away with the irresistible pull of rushing water.

Dimly Cassie remembers something Percy had told her once, that the Greek word for a riptide directly translated to meaning a current that swept in and took you by surprise.

Kissing Steve-

No.

No.

 _Loving_ Steve... It's a riptide.

She can't fight against it, and what's more than that, she doesn't want to.

Eventually though, Cassie does actually have to breath and manages to indicate that fact to her boyfriend. However, the kiss doesn't completely break. It just becomes light and feathery, more brushes of lips than proper kisses she that they can both breath around and between.

"Well now your heart's beating like crazy," Cassie manages to get out, leaning her forehead against his as they both work on getting their breath back. Her thumbs are moving in tiny circles over the insides of his wrists, the rhythm she's talking about beating away beneath his skin. She's not lying either. Steve's heartbeat, normally so steady you could mark time on it like a Swiss watch, is pounding and off rhythm. It's possible she actually feels it skip a beat.

"It's yours," he replies without a moment of hesitation. "And-" he breaks off, swallows, and reaches in to his pocket. What he extracts from it is small, golden, and in a very specific way sparkling. "This is too," he finishes, looking as nervous and unsure as she's ever seen him. "If you want it."

Cassie silently takes the offered engagement ring. It's elegant and simple, a gorgeous stone on a loop of what she thinks might be white gold. She doesn't know enough about gemstones, gold, or jewelry to be able to tell what this ring is actually made out of. What she does know is that it's an _engagement ring._

And her boyfriend is offering it to her.

Looking nothing short of completely terrified.

Which is a weird look on someone who makes a habit of jumping out of helicopters without parachutes.

...

...

...

And he's still waiting for her to stop talking and say something.

"I use my hands a lot," she says at last. Her voice comes out lowly and much quieter than she meant for it to. "When I'm working," she clarifies, locking her gaze on to the denim blue eyes that are her favorite pair of eyes in the entire world. "I'll need to work out somewhere safe to put it during missions."

She looks back down at the ring, and then at her left hand, now free of Steve's. Cassie extends it, wiggling the fingers faintly and then proffering the ring. "Put it on me?"

He blinks once like it's a bit beyond him to comprehend what is actually happening right now. In fact, he looks quite a lot like how she feels. It's both reassuring and completely not all at the same time.

"Is that- I mean- Are you saying-"

"Well are you asking?" Cassie squeaks. Her voice has never sounded less like her voice. "Because I gotta say this is going to be incredibly awkward if that's just a ring in celebration of our couple-ness after a very sweat declaration of love and I've misunderstood the entire situation. If I have say so now so I can stop talking and we can skip to the awkward part and move forward."

Steve cuts her off by nodding frantically. "I'm asking."

There there's a pause where the energy spinning through the room crackles almost tangibly and Cassie waits...

But there's a thing about demigods.

They really suck at being patient.

"WELLLLLLLLLL?"

"Right. Yeah." Steve says with a start. He shifts, holding her left hand in one of his. His eyes as they look at her have never been quite this blue. His mouth is open to speak and Cassie waits, whole body nearly vibrating with expectation and excitement. Her entire face hurts from how widely she's already grinning. Then he stops and shakes his head once. "Wait," he stands and drags her up after him, ignoring her half formed utterance of confused protest. "Come on," he begins dragging her towards the door.

Cassie stumbles a step as she gets her feet under her and lets Steve pull her along. "Where are we going?" she asks as the door to their apartment shuts behind them.

They've already bypassed the elevator and Cassie now sees that they are headed for the stairs. Steve's legs are long enough that he can take the stairs three at a time and Cassie goes in to double time to keep pace.

They reach the roof access door and Steve comes to a stop. Cassie assumes she'll crash in to his back but instead he turns around, right on time to catch her. His left arm goes behind her and tugs her in against him as he kisses her again.

"We're going to the roof," Steve tells her after the kiss breaks. "I'm getting engaged once in my life, and I'm going it with the perfect girl. I'm a superhero, I can do better for a proposal than a clumsy conversation sitting on our couch." With that he extends his right arm and casually caves in the metal door. It swings open with a clanging noise that tells Cassie they'd be paying for property damage if their landlord wasn't a good friend and disgustingly wealthy.

She laughs and moves to follow as Steve steps forwards. "Okay well you're getting points for effort. But for the record I was going to say yes downstairs too."

The two of them step out on to the roof and Cassie has to catch her breath. The space is beautiful. Since Meg had started working and living in the building a lot of the roof space has been converted in to greenhouses which glow softly from within. The air is faintly perfumed with the smell of plants and flowers and fresh earth and the plants cast floral shadows against the glass.

Wind sweeps through the roof, whipping Cassie's hair around her face and carrying the faint sounds of New York traffic way down below them. Cars move below them and planes fly above and both leave winding glittering trails. The surrounding buildings are lit from within by small glowing squares of buttery light. The stars are silvery pinpricks against a backdrop of royal blue velvet.

Steve is watching her, waiting for her reaction. She smiles at him, pushing her hair back so that she can speak without it flying in to her mouth. "Alright," she admits. "Good call with the roof." He smiles and holds out a hand which Cassie takes, letting Steve draw her forward. She expects him to say something else or kiss her again, but rather than doing either of these things he draws one of her hands up to his shoulder and placing his free hand on her hip. "So now we're dancing?"

"I never danced before," he says, and in that moment Cassie is hyperaware of everywhere they're touching, right down to the tiny pattern his thumb is tracing through her shirt. "I love dancing with you."

Cassie smiles up at him and tightens her fingers on his. "I love holding your hand."

Then she does something she almost never does, and sings.

 _'I'll tell you somethin'_

 _I think you'll understand._

 _When I say that something,_

 _I want to hold your hand._

 _I want to hold your hand,_

 _I want to hold your hand."_

Steve is looking down at her with an expression of so much love that Cassie can barely keep going. When she does, she changes a few words just slightly.

 _"Oh please say to me_

 _That you'll be my man_

 _And please, say to me_

 _You'll let me hold your hand._

 _Now let me hold your hand._

 _I want to hold your hand."_

This time Steve brings her fingers to his mouth and kisses them. Cassie extricates her fingers to brush against his cheek. Now that she's started singing she doesn't want to stop until she's said everything she can. So she keeps going, softer and sweeter than before.

" _And when I touch you I feel happy inside._

 _It's such a feeling that my love,_

 _I can't hide,_

 _I can't hide,_

 _I can't hide."_

Now she goes in to the last verse she plans to sing.

 _"I'll tell you something,_

 _I think you'll understand._

 _I want to hold your hand._

 _I want to hold your hand..."_

She lets her voice trail off there and simply hums the rest of the melody. The two of them sway together until her music trails away at the end of the song. It's one of her favorites, and she remembers playing it for Steve on their drive down to New York when they were first moving in.

"I love how you sing," Steve says, inclining his head to place a kiss near her ear. "You don't do it often but when you do it you always smile. And that is just- Just the best thing."

Cassie leans her head forward, tucking in to the hollow beneath his chin. "I love your heartbeat," she tells him honestly. "It's steady and stable and it's my favorite sound in the world. And I love how careful you're always careful of me even though you don't have to be, and that you know I can take care of myself. I love how you trust me and I love that I can trust you too."

The smile on Steve's face matches her own perfectly. There's more they both could say. They could spend an infinite amount of time discussing what they love about each other. But Cassie thinks is the important thing about that is that for each thing about Steve she loves, there's something about her that he loves just as much. They're going in to the future on completely equal terms with each other.

And that's amazing.

Another amazing thing has started to happen too, and that's that the tension has faded. The air around them is still unquestionably charged. There's a sweet tang of anticipation buzzing along her nerves, but there's no rush as the two of them stand together. They're more swaying than dancing, but that's more them anyway.

Still, when Steve extends an arm to spin her and tuck her back in to his chest it makes Cassie laugh and it makes him smile even wider. He spins her again, and then another time, and the next time her vision settles Steve is there. He's down on one knee, gazing up at her, holding her left hand in one of his with the ring in the other.

Cassie has never been the girl who pictured a proposal, a wedding, or any kind of personal future. She never thought she'd ever have one, but it dawns on her that it's possible Steve did. Back before serums, and nazis, and wars, and ice, and aliens from outer space. Before all that he developed his own sense of propriety and how things should be and which things should really be done right.

Proposing to the girl he loves is something he is going to do perfectly.

Cassie gets the feeling that he's going to be doing his utmost to do a lot of things perfectly when it comes to them and their life together. He's not always going to get it right because no human no matter how enhanced can manage that. But Steve's going to do his best, and Steve Roger's best is a force to be reckoned with. And Cassie's best when she cares about something is nothing to sneer at. They'll be helping each other as well, and any mistakes they make are ones they'll be able to work out together.

"Cassandra Melody Morgenstern," Steve says, enunciating each word carefully and smiling around the words as they form on his tongue. It's the first time he's said her full name out like that and it makes a happy shiver run down her spine."Seventy years ago I crashed in to the Arctic and lost everything and everyone I loved all at once, and when we met I was so- so numb that I couldn't even believe that loving someone as much as I love you now would be possible. Then you crashed in to me on the stairs, and you changed my whole perspective on what impossible even meant."

There are tears pricking the corners of her eyes and Cassie doesn't even try to stop them from forming and falling. She's getting proposed to. If there's a time in her life for her to cry with happiness, this is it.

"I helped you up the stairs because you'd broken your foot, and then you corrected me and told me about gender sensitive stereotypes and you did it without making me feel like an idiot," he continues, grinning so widely Cassie wonders if his cheeks are hurting. "You didn't ask me for anything in a world where everyone else seemed to, and it made me want to give you everything and anything you ever needed. I fell in love with you in so many different bits and pieces that I'm not sure I noticed until loving you was the most important thing in my life" he hold the ring up a little farther. "So? Will you legally agree to letting me be in love with you, and to loving me back, and sharing everything we own until one of us dies?"

The ending to that incredibly romantic proposal makes Cassie laugh so hard she almost can't breath enough to say yes. She gets there in the end though. "Yes," she says. "Yes I will legally agree to taking half of your stuff and loving you with everything I have until one or both of us dies. And after that, I'll keep loving you then. I've got some pull with the people running things down there."

"I'm going to put off thinking about that some more in light of the fact that the girl I love just agreed to marry me," Steve decides out loud and Cassie nods furiously to show her agreement.

"That's a good choice," she tells him as he slips the piece of jewelry she'll be wearing for the rest of her life over the last knuckle of her left ring finger.

He stares at it sitting there. Then he kisses her palm, then her pulse point, then the pads of each of her fingers, than the knuckles. He comes back to the one that bears the ring and kisses her fingers once more, still staring as though transfixed.

Cassie buries the fingers of her free hand in the soft hair at the base of his neck as she moves to kiss him. For once it's him who has to lean up and it lets Cassie fall in to the warm slide of their mouths enmeshing without worrying that she'll have to break away when her toes give out. The hand Steve doesn't have locked around her left one moves up her leg to lock around her hips, landing her in his lap with a single sharp tug as his teeth nip at her bottom lip and her mouth opens to him.

They're still sitting on the roof. Wind is roaring all around them and twisting the strands of her hair in to both of their mouths and faces. Cassie's knees are digging in to the cement surface of the roof and sitting like this can't be comfortable for Steve, but Cassie is perfectly happy where she is and Steve doesn't seem at all inclined to move from where they are.

Eventually, they are going to have to move. If for no other reason than the fact that Steve's hands have already moved up the back of her shirt to tug at the fabric which surely won't hold out very long if he keeps tugging like that, there's almost certainly camera surveillance up here, and there are some things Cassie really doesn't want Tony Stark to have on video. 'Captain America Sex Tape' is exactly the newspaper headline he'd find hilarious.

She's about to try to suggest moving when Steve's mouth detaches in favor of a certain spot along the side of her neck and all words fail her. Instead she devotes her energy to focusing on other things. Things like the way they sometimes can't really kiss because of how widely they're both smiling, like the pressure of his fingers against her hips and thighs or tugging at her hair, like making as much of their skin touch as they can manage, and the low moan she can draw from his throat by nipping at the cords in his neck. Steve throws off enough warmth to beat the chill from the wind anyway.

Cassie's just about made up her mind that Steve can just beat Tony up later when Steve makes an executive decision and stands up, still holding her. They make it downstairs with a few brief, though highly pleasant stops, first in the stairwell, and then against the wall outside their apartment.

Making it to their bedroom takes longer.

In fact, they don't really get much sleep that night, which makes it a real bummer when they're privacy is fairly predictably invaded by their friends at a freakishly early time the next morning.

Waking up to pounding fists on the door and Bucky's voice calling to them is decidedly not her favorite way to regain consciousness. She doesn't think it's Steve's either given the fact that his only response to Bucky's voice calling to them is to groan and bury his face in the back of her neck. He presses a kiss there and mumbles something she can't make out.

"Steve!" this time Bucky's voice is a whole lot louder and closer and Cassie reaches to pull a pillow over her head.

"Go away asshole!" Steve calls back, voice still rough from sleep.

Apparently after a lifelong friendship you didn't listen to shouted insults anymore because instead of going away, Bucky opens their bedroom door and sticks his head in. This prompts a semi-conscious scrabble for blankets and Cassie finds herself not so much covered as completely burritoed. The speed with which it's done is actually at the point of being impressive.

"I'm not listening to you right now because my best friend got engaged last night and I found out from a hyperactive Stark at three in the morning," Bucky says. "Hi Cass. Reyna's waiting out here to tackle you and I'll give you hug once there are some more clothes involved. Now get up and get out here so that the people who love you can congratulate you and ask too many personal questions."

"Bucky," Cassie says, fighting to extricate herself from the duvet. "Please understand that as the girl who's best friend you're dating and who is planning to marry your pseudo brother that I love you dearly. That said, get the fuck out of our room and please forget the fact that our friendship is at the point where you have now seen at least one of my boobs."

Bucky smirks and snaps her a tiny solute. "Got it. Oh and Steve? Next time keep at least one blanket for you okay? For all you knew I'd be opening the door with Reyna next to me."

Steve sits up and Cassie passes one of her blankets over to him. "We got engaged last night. Why are you opening our door at all?"

"Well for one thing my girlfriend is out in the kitchen making celebratory breakfast for you and your's," Bucky says. "For another, saying I'd go in first was the only way to keep Stark from breaking down the door."

Steve looks at her and sighs and together they acknowledge that this battle is definitely lost. He moves to stand, holding a blanket around himself. "Fine. We'll be out in a minute." Bucky grins in a way that tells her that they'll both be getting shit about some things for a little while but begins to take himself out of the room. "There had better be bacon when we get there!" Steve calls after him as the door shuts.

Cassie sits forwards with her elbows braced on her knees. If she concentrates she can here the sounds of at least two people talking out in their living room. "Is it too late to make new friends?" she asks. "We're nice people. I feel like we could do it."

"Probably," Steve says, crossing the room to kiss her again. "On the other hand we could probably get some new security on our front door."

"Yeah how did they get in?"

"I have no idea and I'm a little worried I gotta say."

They get out to the kitchen within the next ten minutes. It's long enough to brush their teeth and make themselves look more presentable but neither of them actually bothers to find real clothes. Cassie's in the shirt Steve had been wearing the night before and he unearths a pair of sweatpants from somewhere. They come to the consensus that if they're friends had wanted to see them better dressed they'd have waited another four hours before coming to find them.

As it turns out the pajamas were a good call. When they get to the kitchen they find Reyna yawning sleepily in to a cup of coffee in a pair of sleep shorts and an oversized sweatshirt while Bucky flips pancakes, also in pajamas. This tells Cassie that while they may be the two in their apartment, they aren't the only people who would have wanted in on this conversation.

Cassie hops up next to Reyna and wordlessly steals her coffee mug, chugging approximately half the mug before speaking. "So Tony checked security tapes and then you guys drew the short straw," she surmises out loud.

"Basically," Bucky agrees, pouring more bater circles on the frying pan. "We also got voted least likely to die for coming in here. Tony made FRIDAY let us in to the apartment. In the meantime," he holds out an arm and beckons to Cassie to draw her in to a one armed hug. "Congratulations," he tells her. "You guys are perfect for each other."

She kisses him on the cheek in thanks. "Thanks Bucky."

Then she steps back and let's Steve and Bucky have a moment together, pointedly not listening to what's said and turning to Reyna who is on her second cup of coffee. She asks to see the ring and Cassie complies, watching the gem stone sparkle in the early morning light coming in through the windows. It really is beautiful and feels only very slightly strange to have on her finger.

"That's gorgeous," Reyna comments. "And you can put it on your necklace when you're fighting or in surgery."

Cassie pauses and swallows the mouthful of coffee she's just taken. "Oh thank the gods someone else thought about that," she says. "I knew I'd have to work out something but I didn't quite get to that part last night what with the," she gestures vaguely.

Reyna raises an eyebrow a her flailing hands. "Hot, prolonged, semi-public, super soldier fueled, engagement sex?" she provides.

"Yeah that."

A plate of pancakes and bacon lands in front of her and Cassie smiles at Bucky in thanks. In the next five minutes, everybody has their breakfast and they're seated at the counter. To their credit, Bucky and Reyna give them five to ten minutes to eat before they start back in on the awkward teasing, insensitive ribbing, and personal questions.

"So Stevie," Bucky starts, face impressively blank. "Follow through on the logic for me here. You get the ring, hold on to it for probably way to long trying to plan a proposal, and then end up popping the question on a roof on a random weekend."

Steve's mouth is too full of food to answer verbally but the eyeball he does conveys his feelings fairly clearly. They wait for him to swallow because mockery is always better with more than one person participating. His answer is a surprise though, because it's not mocking or banter or anything like that at all. Instead he smiles over at Cassie, and she loves him and all his faces but this might well be the smile she loves best. "It was more us this way," he says. "I could never have planned feeling like this."

Cassie leans over to kiss him and his mouth tastes like black coffee and blueberry pancakes and it's a taste she wants in her morning routine for the rest of her life.

And there's a ring on her left hand saying she'll get that.

It's a tangible promise that her future will hold something, and that that something will be good, and it won't be just her experiencing it.

The kiss lasts a little longer than either Cassie or Steve might normally let it while in polite company. In their defense, the company they've got might be too familiar to be considered polite. It's also company that should have known better considering that they were both aware of the fact that they'd gotten engaged the night before. Honestly, if they'd wanted a limit on PDA they shouldn't have come over this morning.

Reyna and Bucky, the company in question, are the kind of people who just eat their own breakfast and wait it out. The kiss may be lengthy but it's fairly PG13. As a result both of them are still there and Bucky is contentedly and methodically working through what must be half a pig worth of bacon while Reyna massacres an innocent orange that to Cassie's knowledge has never once done anything to earn this particular death.

"So Bucky," Cassie says after a moment when her brain is working again. "How long exactly did Steve have the ring?"

Steve makes a small sound that might be a protest and Cassie can vaguely make out the phrase "ganging up on me" but that's it. "Months," Bucky answers, selling out his best and oldest friend without missing a beet. "Since right after you guys got home from England." He brandishes his fork. "You owe me some for your potential future happiness by the way. I got dragged through four different independent jewelry stores before finding that thing."

"Consider that best man duty number one," Reyna advises. "'Best friend's wedding'. Say it like a mantra. That's what I'll be doing during the dress shopping."

"You won't have to," Cassie assures immediately. "Making you shop with me more than you're willing to would be cruel and unusual. Besides, we don't have anything planned yet. I'll probably just point you at a color and tell you to go nuts. We've all gotta survive Annabeth and Percy's wedding at the end of October first." Reyna groans and Cassie pats her back sympathetically. "There there. Remember this is Annabeth Chase's wedding we're talking about. Everything is going to be so organized that all we have to do is show up. We'll probably get briefing notes and a step by step diagram."

Bucky clears his throat and raises one hand like he's a kid in school. "This is the wedding I'm gonna have to wear a fancy suit for?" he clarifies.

Reyna grins at him. "I'm still planning on making the effort worth your while."

This time it's Reyna and Bucky kissing and Cassie and Steve sharing glances. Their friends are less PG13 while in public than they are.

After a moment Steve sighs and claps Bucky on the shoulder, dislodging his mouth from the sucker hold it had been in with Reyna's tongue. "You're wearing one for mine too, but I'm not thanking you like that. Let the honor of being my best man be good enough."

Bucky rolls his eyes. "Duh. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're kind of short on life-long friends to ask you Punk."

"Just for that I'm gonna go leave and ask Sam now you Jerk."

The fact that Reyna immediately joins Cassie in her humming rendition of the song 'Guy Love' as Bucky and Steve dissolve in to a round of high speed verbal insult flinging cements her place as a member of the wedding party the way very few other things could have. To some people, this whole thing probably looked pretty severely dysfunctional. Their overall group dynamics, especially after you'd thrown in more demigods and th rest of the Avengers, were probably, to put it plainly, fucked up.

What family wasn't?

Anyway, this is all the short story version of how a demigod daughter of Apollo and granddaughter of Mercury ends up at Percy Jackson's wedding to Annabeth Chase wearing a sapphire and diamond white gold engagement ring with Captain America as her plus one.

 **A/N: So what did you guys think? I know there's been a bit of a gap between the last chapter and this one and I'm sorry about that. I'm also sorry that there'll probably be a pretty big gap before the next chapter goes up. I'm in school and working and there are only so many hours in a day if I want to get any sleep. Meanwhile, I left you guys with something happy! I didn't even cliff hanger you! I hesitated to do the engagement until I thought back over the timeline I was working with. In my timeline, Cassie and Steve have known each other for about 3-4 years and have been together for 2-3 and are living together. The relationship has to keep progressing and that seemed like the logical next step. Let me know what you guys thought! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer: I am so impressed with the ethical codes and commitment to copyright law held by any individual who is still reading this part. For you lovely and upright literary people, I will do my best. Are you ready? I own none of the characters or plot lines here in that you can recognize from any other source. They belong to Marvel Comics, Rick Riordan, and any of those people associated who get paid for their work. I do not get paid for this.**

Percy and Annabeth carry out their wedding in the same way that they do everything else. It's organization and chaos, nerves and confidence, a complex pagoda on a simple beach in Montauk, all of their friends in attendance and no fewer than eight monster attacks trying to ruin things. The most important thing is that they do it together and that there's love.

So, so, much love.

It flows through the events of the day like the water Percy directs and permeates the atmosphere like the wind Jason controls. It comes from all sides and from everyone in attendance. Just... love.

Chiron performs the wedding ceremony in full horse form while Thalia and Grover stand as maid of honor and best man respectively. Annabeth's dad walks her down the aisle while her step-mom wrangles her half-brothers with Sally and Paul's help. Percy's little sister is the single most adorable flower girl on the planet.

A familiar man wearing a Hawaiian shirt walks straight out of the ocean and on to the beach completely dry just as the ceremony starts and a large owl surreptitiously transforms in to a grey-eyed woman and takes a seat amongst the other guests. Cassie doesn't make eye contact with either figure and doesn't plan on stopping to speak to either of them and Ella the Harpy have a seating section reserved just for them. Grover's wife Juniper isn't in attendance as she's tied to her life source, but Gleeson Hedge and Mellie are there with their son Chuck.

Cassie walks up the aisle in a layered grey and blue chiton arm and arm with Leo just behind Thalia and Grover. Behind them come Piper and Jason, then Reyna and Nico who are followed by Frank and Hazel as Rachel sweeps up the rear accompanied by Annabeth's cousin Magnus who looks vaguely terrified and a bit confused as to how he got in to his current position. The Greek demigods in attendance are dressed about like Cassie while the Romans are in togas of the wedding colors. Those torn between the worlds had a choice.

Jason wears a toga, his various badges and medals pinned to the fabric and flashing in the light. Percy wears a Grecian tunic over suite pants, Riptide in sword form at his waist. Cassie chose to stick with full Greek for the day, complete with leather sandals and ribbon braided hair.

As Cassie takes the seat reserved for her, a look over the audience shows Calypso and Meg seated together. Pietro is next to Meg and looks like he's concentrating very, very hard on something. He's probably trying not to tap his feet.

Clarisse LaRue and Chris Rodrigez are being remarkably well behaved in the middle of the crowd. Clarisse is even smiling a little. Dakota the Cool Aide centurian keeps darting longing looks at the refreshment pavilion and Katie Gardner seems to be in charge of keeping the Stoll brothers in line. Will catches her looking and shoots her a thumbs up. Two figures in shimmering pink and green wedding attire sit together towards the back and Cassie's pretty sure that they came with Magnus.

Steve and Bucky are in the row directly behind her. Bucky seems to be watching the ceremony with interest and is idly playing with a bit of Reyna's hair where it falls over the back of her chair. Steve is grinning right at Cassie and she automatically finds herself smiling back. He gestures towards the front to direct her focus and Cassie follows the prompt, first dropping her left hand behind her.

Steve takes her hand with no further prompting and nets their fingers together. She's looking forwards at Annabeth and Percy now, but she feels Steve's fingers run over the ring on her finger, almost like he still can't quite believe it's there. Cassie squeezes her hand once, and then the ceremony begins in ernest.

Chiron does it beautifully. Parts are in Greek and Latin and Cassie keeps note of them as well as she can to translate for Steve later if he asks. It's possible he knows some of the Latin, it's all love and loyalty and promises. That with the English probably makes the Greek understandable, like a Rosetta Stone for weddings.

When the ceremony is over Annabeth all but jumps at Percy to kiss him. Percy stumbles at the impact but manages not to fall over, returning the embrace. They're both grinning so widely that it shows even at this angle. Supernatural eyesight not required.

"At least she didn't judo flip him this time," Reyna mutters, speaking directly in to Cassie's ear to be heard around all the cheering and wolf whistling.

Cassie grins and leans over to reply without stopping her clapping. "The odds were fifty fifty," she says. "It wouldn't surprise me if Travis was running a pool. We should have put some money in."

Reyna shruggs and goes back to clapping along with the others. "Would have, should have, could have."

Bucky leans forwards with his flesh and blood arm folded over the metal one along the back of Reyna's chair. "Would Travis happen to be one of the two nearly identical looking guys being managed by the scary lookin' brunette at the back of the tent?"

"The very slightly taller one," Cassie confirms. "Why?"

He shrugs, but the expression on his face is just a bit too innocent for Cassie to be completely unsuspicious. "No reason." At her skeptical expression he gives a crooked grin. "Just hypothetically speaking, how would you spend two hundred bucks?"

Just then Percy causes a distraction by picking Annabeth straight up off of the ground and in to his arms which in turn makes the crowd increase their cheering to new heights. Still, Cassie can just make out Steve giving a drawn out sigh in the manner that only long suffering friends can successfully affect. Steve and Bucky's is a friendship longer suffering than most.

Eventually the ceremony gives way to dinner which is an impressive affair. It manages to feed Steve, Bucky, and a whole hoard of demigods as well as a cyclops, Grover, Hedge, and a picky Harpy in addition to several mortals. There's a separate buffet for the vegetarians and plenty of pingpong balls as well as a platter piles with a number of peanut butter sandwiches that borders on being inconceivably large. A corner of one table is filled with cinnamon products and there's more blue food around than Cassie has ever dreamed to be possible.

'I'm still not sure food should be this color," Steve comments. "On the other hand, I'm starving, and nothing so far has been able to kill me."

Bucky has shown no such reservations and is efficiently packing his mouth with food. "'Tastes amazing."

Steve's not the only wedding guest with apprehension over the extension of the color theme in to the menu. However, most of them seem to be reassured by the fact that no one who has eaten has dropped dead yet and they're slowly beginning to tuck in to their own meals. Steve, brave soul that he is, merely shrugs and dives in. He and Bucky together eat through most of a buffet table before dinner gives way to dessert, cocktails, and speeches.

Grover and Thalia give speeches that are equal parts funny and nostalgic. Sally and Mr. Chase have both come prepared with tear jerkers. A few of their other friends speak, some poignantly, and some hysterically.

Every hour, two demigods break away from the party to do a sweep of the perimeter. There's a chart and a schedule and Jason generated them both which means they're color coded and non-negotiable.

Bucky is a surprisingly good dancer and from the expression on Reyna's face when she's dragged on to the floor with him it's a skill he's been hiding. However, the true star dancers turn out to be Leo and Calypso who salsa like they've been in training. Hazel attempts vainly to teach Frank how to Charleston and gives up when he almost takes out the cake with an elbow.

Piper and Jason manage to pull off something that looks fairly graceful but that's largely thanks to the fact that Jason is levitating them both a half an inch off of the ground, thus making it impossible for them to trip. Cassie thinks this might be cheating but doesn't have much room to talk. She's long since abandoned her shoes and is standing on Steve's feet as he moves them around the floor. It's how they've danced before and the position brings happy memories to augment the happy present.

A thought drifts across Cassie's mind as they sway which prompts her to lift her head from where it had been resting on Steve's chest. "Where do you want to get married?" she asks. "A church? I mean I know you're Catholic, but I'm kind of really not. We could still try to do it but I don't know if they'd let us."

There's more to her rant but Steve is already shaking his head. "I think at this point my Catholicism is what the Church would consider to be 'lapsed'. No churches. And I don't really care about what ceremony gets used either. I'd like to be able to understand all of it though so..."

Cassie leans up and brushes a kiss along his cheek. "I have absolutely no problem with it being in English. Or teaching you the Greek. I've got a translation of today's ceremony if you want to hear it later. But on the subject of languages, do you want any of it to be in Gaelic? I absolutely can't speak it, but if you tell me what I'd be saying I'll do my best."

"That's something to think about," Steve muses. "There are bits of Gaelic ceremonies that are really beautiful." He looks down at her considerately and Cassie can almost hear the cogs whirring in his brain below the wedding playlist. "Is there anything you absolutely don't want when it comes to our wedding?" he asks. "That might be an easier starting point."

She let's the question churn around in her mind, giving it the kind of consideration it deserves. The truth is, Cassie never thought she'd live long enough to get married. The question of how she might like her wedding ceremony to go has never played through her head.

"I'd like to be somewhere with some sunshine," she says eventually. "That doesn't mean it has to be during the summer or outside or at some location, but somewhere with light. And ideally I'd like it to be a kind of small guest list. Just our friends and family. But given the kind of paparazzi attention we're dealing with maybe that's not possible."

"Like hell the paparazzi are crashing our wedding," Steve says firmly, his voice edging unconsciously in to the tones of The Captain. "They can take pictures and wait outside. Maybe get a few interviews if we're feeling nice. Reyna and Pepper can figure out a nicer way to make it happen than telling them to just fuck off, but that's what's happening."

Cassie smiles up at him. "I like the plan Cap," she says, teasing him gently. Then she lets herself get a bit more serious. "I'm not saying I'll obey you," she states. "I know it's not used in weddings very much anymore anyway, and I don't think you'd want me to, but laying that out seems relevant to the conversation we're having."

Steve draws the palm he's holding up to his cheek and then turns his head to kiss her skin. The gesture is familiar now but the delightful shiver that sparks through her nerves that comes along with it could never be. "Sweetheart," he says, voice low enough to send shivers through her. "The day the fact that I am somehow lucky enough to have you love me makes me stupid enough to think you should obey me is the day you should absolutely hit me in the head with a large blunt object and drop me in a new block of ice."

"You say the sweetest things to me Steve Rogers."

They've taken a long weekend for the wedding and enjoy kicking around on the beach for a while. Neither of them has ever really had the opportunity to just enjoy the intrinsic combination of sun, waves, and sand. It's relaxing in a way that very little else is.

It's coming up on mid-September now, and by all calendar rules the Summer is over. However, the sun seems to be putting in it's last and best efforts just for them. Given who Cassie's dad is, it's possible that that's literally true.

Time spent sprawled on a towel on the sand soaking in the rays recharges Cassie's mental batteries and power reserves to peak levels and her skin picks up a golden brown tan within the first day and a half. Steve can't tan because the serum categorizes it as physical damage and repairs it before any effects can be seen. What the serum doesn't stop is his hair going nearly corn tassel blonde in some places.

They return just in time to help manage the freaked out whirlwind that is Tony Stark on his daughter's first day of school.

Steve drags Tony back to the Tower after dropping Katy off and then summarily dumps him off with Rhodey and a newly returned and centered Bruce Banner, both of whom were called by Pepper for the occasion. Rhodey is prepared with stories about his own kids and the things they've gotten up to at school and Bruce arrives with a tablet full of pictures of Clint Bartons' niece and nephews taken over the last few months at the farm. Cassie suspects it'll also have a few new mathematical equations waiting to be solved and can only hope they don't end up with a new murder bot.

She doesn't think they'll have a problem. Rhodes is a good supervisor and has experience Tony wrangling and Banner seems to be in a better place mentally than Cassie has ever seen him. The Barton farm would appear to have semi-magical Hulk calming properties. Oddly enough, Banner flushes bright red and mumbles at the ground when asked more pointed questions about Laura Barton in particular. Clint goes off muttering about figuring out a way to knock out the Hulk.

Pepper makes a good show of being calm. It's pretty convincing, but Cassie notices that she calls all of the available women in the Tower over for lunch and is even more glued to her phone than usual. Still, the food is plentiful and ordered in from a restaurant fancier than anywhere the majority of Pepper's guests have ever dared set foot in so the turn out is good and no complaining takes place.

When Cassie arrives Reyna and Wanda are already there and seem to have been recruiting in to helping shift all of the food to the table they'll eat at. Pepper probably picked them up on her way up to the residential floors of the Tower. The woman is currently setting out flatware, but waves a fork in acknowledgement of her arrival.

"Hi," she says. "Darcy just texted that she's on her way up with Jane. Apparently she had to call Thor to help detach Jane from her microscope, and having lived with Tony for this long I sympathize. Meg is through there in the kitchen getting the drinks. There's nothing alcoholic this time since we're all going back to work later, but there'll be plenty of water, soda, and coffee."

Cassie nods. "I'll go help ferry."

She's barely taken a step away when Pepper catches at her arm and pulls her back. "Oh no you won't," she says firmly. "I'm a new mom who just sent her child off for her first day of school. Her child who still sometimes catches on fire when she gets nervous. I'm exactly one bad parenting decision away from saying screw socialization with other children her own age and letting Tony hire someone to homeschool her. I need distracting. Come be a helpful friend and let me stare at your engagement ring while you tell me about the proposal."

There are gods living in the universe. There are demons and monsters and fates with incredible power. Cassie has faced them all and never once doubted her ability to win.

Nothing will ever defeat a determined Pepper Potts.

Knowing this is why Cassie quietly submits and allows herself to be parked in a chair across the table from Pepper and next to Reyna. You have to pick your battles and she's been drafted in to more than enough of them against her will to pick this one. Here's a hint, once was enough.

"So..." Cassie says, drawing out the syllable. "Where do you want this to start and how much detail do you want this to include?"

The grin on Pepper's face tells her that any and all details she's willing to provide will be examined from every angle and categorized the way a jeweler examines precious stones. She leaves out the words Steve used and what she said back apart from the most important question and answer. The rest of it feels to special to share. Maybe she'll tell the full story someday, but not yet.

Even this version of the story takes a while to tell because she has to keep stopping, rewinding, and restarting as different friends arrive with different questions. By the time everyone is satisfied they've killed about forty-five minutes of their hour long lunch and Cassie feels like she's going to need about a week before answering any other questions about her personal or romantic life. She loves her friends but she has some limits.

One of the reasons that she loves her friends is that as soon as they're in the know, they start offering help. Cassie is left with no doubts that as soon as she and Steve know what they want for their wedding, they'll get it.

Pepper can accomplish anything between her name, money, and sheer determination. Darcy is brutally efficient at getting shit done and Reyna commands legions. Meg has never met a challenge she didn't attempt, Jane is six feet of determination crammed in five feet of space, and Wanda has already promised to scramble as many heads as needed should anyone hold out and get in their way.

Add in any of the guys and everyone Cassie knows at Camp and she and Steve are going in to this wedding with a literal army behind them.

Hopefully they won't need it.

Still...

Demigod/Super-Soldier wedding with superheroes in attendance.

Anything's possible.

It turns out to be a very good thing that Cassie and Steve have so many highly organized, determined, and supportive friends. Much of the public is a crazed and shouting mass headed by the paparazzi. Not all the voices shouting are necessarily critical, but much of the public appears to be obsessive and consistently over interested in Steve's personal life.

Cassie is pretty highly aware of the fact that in many ways, she _is_ Steve's personal life. Bucky is his best friend, but Bucky is also visibly terrifying and unapproachable and therefore generally left alone by the public. The press occasionally speculates over him and often gets his picture taken while he's out if someone notices who he is, which isn't often.

It used to be that Cassie could still go unnoticed if she was out in public alone or the members of her circle of friends who kept lower profiles. That had vanished for a while when people first figured out Captain America had a girlfriend and then died down. Any and all illusion of the public's mature disinterest in her vanishes faster than Cassie's grandad in a hurry the first time she goes out in public with her engagement ring.

"Hi Honey I'm home," Cassie singsongs as she comes through the door with a tray of take-away coffee from Starbucks and a wax pastry bag. She sets the tray down on the coffee table and collapses on the couch to stare up at the ceiling. Maybe it's a bit dramatic, but she figures she can blame her genetic components for the occasional indulgence. Today fucking deserves one.

She checks her watch and nearly groans. How can this day have already been this exhausting by twelve forty five? Nothing even tried to kill her that morning, and she's only been up for like four hours.

This is only going to support her theory that most of the paparazzi must be demons in disguise.

"Hey," Steve replies as he walks over to her couch from the kitchen. From her angle his head is upside down. "Everything okay down there?"

Cassie hums a bit at the back of her throat and then reaches up towards him. "Decent. You're a little too far away. It's a problem."

He grins, and a smiling Steve is just as amazing to see upside down as it is right side up. "I am known in certain circles to be an excellent problem solver." A moment later his face is just barely above hers, and by tipping her head back Cassie can see his arms draping lightly over the arm of the sofa above her head. He must be kneeling.

The kiss he gives her is somewhat limited by the logistics of the situation, but they make it work. The light touch of his lips on hers and the happy warmth it sends along her nerves settles the prickly feeling she's gotten from dealing with the press horde. She reaches a hand a bit behind her to brush his cheek and nearly smacks him in the face which makes Steve chuckle. He catches her hand to place it better and slides his own hand down her arm to cradle her jaw.

After a moment he breaks away a bit and tips his chin towards his chest, kissing her nose. "This angle is not entirely unpleasant but a bit difficult on a logistical level. I'm willing to work with it if you're determined not to move, but otherwise I'm gonna need couch space."

"So demanding," Cassie mutters, crossing her legs and pulling them backwards under her on the cushions.

The air around her shifts as Steve moves to fill the vacated space. He tugs on her feet lightly to get her to stretch her legs back across his lap. "Fortunately I'm a good conversationalist."

"I kinda like your personality too," Cassie tells him. "Plus you cook, you've got some money, and you're not hideous."

Steve quirks a smile at her but then makes his face deliberately impassive as he reaches for her and pulls her upright, his arm taking the place of the couch for spinal support. "Personally, I'm with you for the healing powers. Gonna need those." He reaches back in to her hair and pulls out the elastic so it falls over his fingers. "Besides you've got the brain power. Clearly someone in the relationship was going to have to be the smart one. Bucky always said it was never going to be me."

Cassie pats his cheek and rest her other hand along the arm attached to the hand resting on the side of her neck. "It's nice to have these talks. We should share in the positive reinforcement. We'll need the self-esteem for dealing with the outer populace." She reaches sideways for their coffee and hands Steve his. "Enjoy this. Starbucks is a death trap and we shouldn't go back without disguises."

He grimaces. "The only time I've ever tried being in disguise was right before SHIELD fell. I was on the run with Nat and she scared the hell out of me by kissing me after declaring that public displays of affection made people very uncomfortable. I had just finished agreeing with her when she grabbed me."

Cassie laughs. "Poor Steve. Had to deal with being kissed by what has to be one of the most attractive women on the planet. It must have been such a trial."

Steve's ears are starting to go pink in the adorable way that they have. "You laugh, but I spent a solid four hours wondering if Clint was about to shoot me from a mile away. Besides-"

He leans over to kiss her and his mouth tastes like black coffee and the taste that is all Steve and nothing else. Cassie hauls herself up and over in to his lap and flails a little to try to figure out somewhere to put her coffee cup down. Burning hot liquid spillage has a way of ending make outs. Eventually she gives up and simply shifts her grip to cover the opening in the lid.

Steve, who made the brilliant tactical decision to simply never pick up his coffee cup, has both hands free. He takes advantage of this in a manner that Cassie would applaud for it's brilliance if her hands weren't already occupied. His hands are always a little warm, but they never fail to make little shivers and goose bumps arch across her skin.

The kiss breaks and Cassie makes a little sound of protest. "Hey, I was enjoying that."

"I wanted to finish my sentence," he offers in explanation. "I got distracted though."

Cassie gives him a look that asks exactly who's fault he thinks that is completely without words. Steve doesn't speak yet so Cassie rolls her eyes and tips forwards to bury her face in the space between his collarbone and his chin. "Fine. 'Besides' what?"

His arms wrap around her more securely and tuck her against his chest. A puff of warm air skims the shell of her ear. "I was suppose to go on a date with an amazing girl who lived across the hall from me. I'd been wanting to ask her for a while and couldn't believe she'd said yes. Kissing someone else to not get killed in a shopping mall felt like moving the wrong direction."

She grins in to his chest and squeezes her arms around him a little tighter in a hug. "Good thing I teleported in to Sam's kitchen and landed in your lap then."

"I never did apologize for dumping you on the floor."

"That's okay. I get how it might have been surprising. Consider yourself very forgiven. Anyway," she gestures vaguely at their current position with the hand that is still miraculously gripping her coffee cup. "I'd say we've improved in our pairs lap sitting technique quite a bit since then."

Steve doesn't reply and the two of them sit like that together. It's a comforting kind of silence, the kind you can only sit in with certain special people. Steve's fingers are tracing little patterns over her back and shoulders. It doesn't feel completely aimless, but Cassie can't tell what designs he's making either.

"Cass?" he asks, suddenly breaking the silence. He's talking in his serious voice so Cassie leans back and sits up to look him in the eye, setting her cup on the ground to listen.

There's a frown slashing between his eyes and Cassie is tempted to reach out and smooth the wrinkles with her fingers. Mentally, she tries to do a quick overview of where Steve's thoughts might have gone to generate that expression. "What's up?"

He shifts a bit, moving his eyes off of the middle distance he's been focusing on and back to her. His fingers splay and brush along her back and sides. "What exactly are all those people shouting at you?"

Cassie opens her mouth to say "nothing", but Steve fixes her with his blue blue eyes and she lets her jaw snap shut. Lying to Steve is like lying to an ernest golden retriever puppy, and Steve has never enjoyed people trying to placate him. Honesty is going to be the only way forward.

Still, honesty can be presented in different ways.

"The public is apparently very concerned about the current status of my uterus," she relays. "Occupancy of and such. Also what message it was sending to people and teens about pre-marital slash safe sex if Captain America was doing it. They also seem to think that were I pregnant, I would be unaware as a medical professional that coffee is bad for fetal development. It's okay though." She says quickly as his expression goes dark. "I've got speeches planned. I'll run'em by Reyna and do a delivery next time I go out for groceries or something. Maybe we can add some of it to your vaccination talks."

Steve has yet to speak and Cassie is a little worried about the expression on his face. His eyes have gone about the same shade as the blue near the hottest part of flames. It's the dangerous kind of intensity that normally goes along with mission planning and dropping in to enemy fire. Basically, Steve is angry.

Steve doesn't normally get angry. Annoyed, pissed, irritated, all of these are things Steve sometimes is. Normally around Tony.

This is angry.

"Shoot them," he says, voice deadly cold. "I'm done being nice. Next time, just shoot them."

Maybe they're a little past angry.

He's gone stiff against her and the only thing harder than his voice are his eyes. His shoulders are set and back. It takes Cassie a second to realize what has happened.

She cups his cheek with one hand and angles his head to look at her, bracing her other hand against his chest with her fingers twisted in to the fabric of his shirt. "Put the Cap away Honey. We don't need him right now." Her own voice is a knife edge and for a moment she wonders if it's too far.

Then Steve blinks.

The ice shell cracks.

Steve's not calm. Oh no. They're nowhere near calm. The finger pads digging in to her hip bones are enough to convey that with absolute clarity. Still, she thinks she's backed him down from 'murderous' which a multitude of paparazzi should probably thank her for.

"Who tells them that behaving like that is okay?" he demands. "What makes a person think that? Is there a trade agreement when you start working for the press core? Credentials for your sense of human decency? What gives them the right?"

"One of the amendments," Cassie replies, answering only his last question and not attempting the others. She squirms a bit and his fingers constrict almost automatically so she stops moving. Were she human, that pressure might be enough to hurt. "The first one, I think. Meanwhile, handling this stuff is Reyna's job. Stark actually pays people to deal with it so let them. You and I'll do our jobs, they'll do theirs."

Steve seems to chew that over for a second, trying to get to grips with the fact that she is actually making sense. "I _hate_ doing _nothing_ ," he says, almost spitting the words out before taking a gasping breath back in. "They're being relentless and vile," he says lowly. "I know logically you're right and that we can't let any of that," he gestures outside, "effect our lives. But my immediate reaction is that someone I love is being treated badly and there's nothing I can do to help."

Cassie has already figured out that this instinct is one that Steve has and that it probably kicks in to pretty high gear when it comes to her. She suspects that this same instinctive reaction is at least partially to blame for Steve's famous solo airdrop during the war. The thing is, Steve tends to let that instinct scream so loudly that it drowns out his own sense of self-preservation.

Hence arctic ocean and being frozen for seventy years.

"It seems to me," Cassie says slowly. "That the nature of the media is that it throws everything it finds at a wall to see what sticks. If nothing does, it moves on to the next thing. By next week they'll figure out that they want to be on our good side so they get wedding pictures/baby pictures were there to be any for them to see. Which there are not."

After saying that, she begins the project of very subtly working her fingers below Steve's so that he'll be gripping her hands instead of her hips. Her action seems to make Steve realize how tightly he's been gripping and manages a small, apologetic smile. It seems as though he's reached the stage of trying to relax on purpose and Cassie's glad he's on her side now.

He fiddles with her fingers a minute and then drops his head back against the cushions with a sigh. "Tony was right that first day we moved in," he says, angling his head to look at her. "We're going to end up with cherub children," he says in explanation at her raised eyebrows. "Blonde hair and blue eyes."

Cassie shoots him a crooked grin, glad for the subject change. "Takes the mystery out of things, but the certainty is good. Gods only know what our various genetic situations will combine to form. I've tried doing a bit of a genetic mock up with a simulation program and the results are all over the place. They'll probably be pretty damn healthy though if you look at our combined healing factors..." She trails off, noticing that Steve's gone still again. "What? What is it? What's wrong?"

Steve starts and then shakes his head, siting up a bit more. "Nothing. It's just- Before everything with the serum I had so many problems. That you know for sure- that you can already so for sure that our kids won't have to live with that..." he shrugs. "It's mind-blowing."

She can't help but melt a bit at that. She hadn't realized, though she probably should have, that that kind of worry would be bouncing around inside Steve's head. Cassie mentally kicks herself. She'd have shared the simulation data sooner if she'd known.

Her fingers brush along the curve of his cheek as she says, "I think you already know that most of those issues were environmental and circumstantial. Your mom didn't have the benefit of modern pre-natal care and your lungs weren't fully developed because lungs _don't_ develop before the end of a pregnancy because babies breath amniotic fluid until they're born. You didn't have enough food growing up and you didn't have the immune system to handle germs and had no vaccinations. Medical care in the forties sucked Steve, _sucked._ I bet you were told to smoke to toughen your lungs or something weren't you?"

That actually makes Steve grin. "That. And I got opium cough syrup once. I was convinced I had a pet dog named Caboose. I did not have a pet dog named Caboose. I have never had a pet dog named Caboose."

"Is this you're way of telling me what to get you for Christmas?" Cassie asks. "Because we'll be moving upstate soon and from the blueprints we'll have the yard space, and the pet might be good practice."

He tips his head at her. "Have you ever had one?"

"A pet?" she verifies, and he nods. "Nope," she says, popping the 'p'. "I helped Percy with Mrs. O'Leary a few times, and Annabeth's family has a mastiff I used to hang with sometimes. I made friends with a demonic skeleton kitten once, but that was a really, really, really temporary thing."

Steve's eyebrows shoot up. "Demonic skeleton kitten?"

Cassie waves a hand. "Long story," she says. "Atlas tried to raise killer skeleton warriors. It's this ritual you can do if you plant dragon teeth, I don't really know the details. Anyway, his minion screwed up and planted saber tooth tiger teeth instead. Viola, demonic skeleton kittens. One made friends with an amnesiac titan and was named Small Bob."

"Was there a Large Bob?"

"That would be the amnesiac titan," she explains, shifting to sit sideways with her back against the arm of the couch. "Circling back for a second, any kids we have should be not just okay, but exceptionally healthy. Genetic coding has two levels. One set gets expressed no matter what. That's stuff like hair and eye color. The other set has to be activated by the right circumstances. Height and size is mostly like that. Part of what Erksine did with the serum is activate those genes in you."

She can't remember if she's told him this before, but she figures reinforcing it won't hurt. "If you'd been born in say the nineties, you'd probably look a lot like you do now. Maybe less obviously or perfectly muscled, but depending on your workouts and nutrition maybe not. Seriously, our kids might be short because I am, and so was my mom, but they'll be short and healthy."

Cassie wonders if that's true. She wonders about a daughter who grumbles at her for giving her the short genes when Daddy is so tall, and she wonders about a son who ends up taller than her by the time they're in high school. Maybe both of them together, chasing and teasing each other.

Steve's mind must be on a similar track to hers because the next thing he asks is, "How many would you want?"

"Less than a basketball team," she says immediately, and then pauses to actually consider. "More than one. My siblings, Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia, they made impossible things doable. Having someone instantly and automatically on my side for the big stuff was amazing. I think even way have chaos limits though, so less than five." A thought occurs to her suddenly. "Don't suppose you know if there's a history of twins in your family?"

Steve shakes his head. "No idea. Isn't your dad technically one of a set of twins?"

Cassie sighs. "Technically yes. Genetically- actually I have no idea. I'm ending that train of thought before my head explodes."

"Speaking of exploding," Steve starts. "Katya keeps doing that fireball thing, would our kids," he makes a little _whooshing_ motion.

She grins, and she thinks this one is probably crooked too. More Mercury than Apollo. "Probably not. Not even I do that without trying. It takes a lot of energy and power. I can only do it because I'm seventy-five percent god not fifty. Our kids'd be mathematically thirty-two point five percent god. Lower power levels. Other part demigod children I've met get like, watered down abilities. They can see through the Mist. They're a bit stronger, faster, and healthier. They heal a little faster than mortal kids and can drink nectar. They handle weapons well and can normally read Greek and Latin. Sometimes they can do little stuff like make plants grow, play music without studying, pick pockets, charmspeak a little, that kind of thing."

"So our kids are going to be strong, fast, quick healing, mischievous, determined kids with musical and criminal tendencies who don't like bullies," Steve summarizes. He says it with a particular soft smile on his face and it's one she wants to see as often as she can.

Cassie waves a hand. "They'll run around and make us crazy," she says. "If Bucky and Reyna have kids they can all charge around in a hoard while we try to group parent and if we get the timing right maybe Katya can do some babysitting. Tony can be the fun uncle, Bucky can play fixer, he'll like that. Sam and Will can share the sage advice giving job. Plus they'll have at least a dozen aunties. Nat and Reyna will pass them cookies and stuff. Piper and Darcy can handle dating advice, and Banner, Jane, and Annabeth have got homework help covered. Pepper can schedule everything, it'll be great."

Steve kisses the palm of her left hand first and then between her eyes. "Guess we should hurry up and get married sometime soon then."

"I have it on good authority that the first thing to do when planning a wedding is to pick a date," Cassie says. "Then you figure out a location, then you do everything else. I have had many offers of help from _very_ efficient people so organization won't be quite as much of a hassle as I've heard weddings can be."

His expression has changed in to a planning look. "I feel like we should probably wait until after the compound upstate is finished," he says. "The chaos threshold and everything. And it means we'll be able to come home to the place that's really going to be home. Not just somewhere we know we're going to have to move out of." How much he likes the idea of that, the idea of a place that's home for them, home forever is obvious in his words.

She nods in agreement. "That makes sense." She tries to do the mental math for a second and then gives up when there are too many unknown variables. "When does Tony think we can start moving in?"

"Technically speaking, we could move in now," he says. "It would just be moving in to temporary on-site lodging Army barrack style. I figure we've both lived in enough of those to last us for the next seventy years or so."

"At least," Cassie agrees fervently. "A decade straight was long enough."

Steve makes a face that pretty much sums up how Cassie feels. "I slept in a tent for two years. No more barracks if they're avoidable. Stark says construction on team housing is up and running but will probably slow down in about a month. Weather in upstate New York gets bad over the Winter. Once the snow starts they can't get the equipment in and digging can't happen if the ground is frozen. Right now the move in date is late March."

Cassie grins and does tiny jazz hands. "Happy Birthday to me. So maybe Mayish? Gives us time to move all of our stuff in and feel settled before wedding craziness can start. Plus it let's us enjoy married-ness before the annual threat of apocalypse at the end of June."

"You know, I used to think you were kidding when you told me you always kept that in your calendar. Sitting here nearly two years later, I have to admit it's a definite thing." He says it like he's trying to joke but Cassie knows he worries at the solstices and equinoxes every time her phone rings because it might be Camp and might be an emergency and it's been twelve years but this time might be the one that she doesn't make it back from.

This is the way they play it though. Life gets dark and frightening and both of them technically do jobs where either of them might end up prematurely dead and they ignore it and plan for the future that they hope they'll get to live. They ignore the fact that they've both learned that hope can be a heartbreaking thing to have.

They tell a joke.

Right now that's Cassie's job. "Ah yes, the Summer apocalypse. The good old staple of the year. If the world as I know it doesn't nearly end once every three-hundred sixty-five days, has the year even really gone by? Seriously, it's so punctual. The Rolex of catastrophic events. Then Tony showed up with the freaking robot army and everything got all out of whack." She perks up. "I'll tell you what the schedule of this year's potentially destructive times has become Steve. It's Swatch-like. Possible end-days and their timings are now a Swatch."

Steve is smiling now.

Mission accomplished.

Cassie leans down to kiss him. It's a nice change. This is so rarely their height differential.

She means it to be one of their lighter kisses, to match the mood she'd tried to set just a moment before. Apparently, Steve has other plans because the kiss deepens quickly and turns serious. His fingers twist in to her hair, locking them together and Cassie does her part by twining her limbs around him like vines around a tree. Cassie tips her head away to breath and Steve's head drops to her shoulder scattering kisses along the skin there.

Cassie moves her face to catch his mouth again and presses her forehead in to his. She's breathing a little fast, but so is Steve, and she can feel their hearts hammering along in time. One of her hands has migrated to resting over his and Steve extricates one of his own, sliding it to cover hers.

"So Mayish," Steve says, nose nuzzling hers. "We have a date."

"We have a date," Cassie agrees.

That date, general though it is sets a placemarker for the upcoming year. It hovers in a wonderful kind of way. Cassie marks it in her yearly planner with the same color of pen she uses to write in auspicious celestial dates. Gods' birthdays, solstices, equinoxes, feast days, and her wedding all written in in neon green.

Days of possible chaos should keep a consistent color.

It's the least they can do for her.

Life continues on in the Tower.

Steve goes on missions to try to clear up the messes of the world with the rest of the team and Cassie goes with them most of the time now. The violent missions have gotten more violent with higher potential for injury and the more humanitarian aid missions that come in the wake of natural disasters and acts of human cruelty are uglier and more bloody. On that kind of mission, Cassie has more to do than any of the rest of the team. Will starts coming along with them and they coordinate with the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

Between missions, Cassie provides all needed healthcare to people in the Tower and does mass attacks of paperwork because it keeps piling up when she has to be out of the office. Steve, Rhodes, and Reyna keep having meetings with politicians that leave them all frustrated and in the mood to rant which means that she and Bucky are passingly informed and start an email exchange comparing the merits of different de-stressing teas. Piper runs Stark Enterprises and the labs are only ever a little bit destroyed in fiery explosions.

Cassie, Reyna, and Meg do rotational monster patrols with occasional help from Wanda and Pietro. It turns out that both Maximoff twins can see through the Mist. Cassie has been over their DNA and blood work multiple times and still can't figure out why. It's another mystery to unravel in the long term, the same way Hulk management techniques, overviewing Bucky's psychological reports, watching Tony's blood pressure, and getting to the bottom of the serum effects are.

Tony insists that Halloween be child appropriate so Katy (who is doing very well in school all things considered) can enjoy it. Cassie wears a black tee shirt with a name tag that says 'LIFE' and goes around handing people lemons. "What you do with it is up to you," she tells Darcy.

"So if I were to chuck it at Tony's head..."

She lets the suggestion dangle and Cassie laughs. "I'm sure he did something, at some point, to someone, over the course of his lifetime to deserve it. For what it's worth, you have my blessing to not miss."

Darcy's aim is fantastic and Cassie is incredibly proud.

Will and Nico are both invited along to the massive Avengers Thanksgiving dinner that Tony and Pepper throw. Their presence livens up the evening when Nico provides entertainment in the form of the spirits of a Native American man and a Pilgrim one at a time to relay their separate experiences of the original meal. Thanksgiving has never been so educational.

They also get to watch the mass hilarity of Thor meeting Nico and Will. The Norse god of thunder hails them both as mighty warriors, offers them some Asgardian mead, and regales them all with a long and complex story about a necromancer he'd met in the sixteenth century. He also insists on hugging Nico before he leaves which ends with a grinning Thor and Grouchy son of Hades.

Thanksgiving is followed by Christmas. Steve and Cassie spend Christmas Eve with Reyna and Bucky and have Christmas morning in private before dinner at the Jackson-Blowfish residence. Boxing Day is a fantastic British invention and one Cassie and Steve commit to thoroughly in the name of a day of peace and quiet before New Years Eve kicks in and they'll have to belong, at least a little bit, to the public.

Some deity up there must be on Cassie's side at least a little bit because apart from the occasional picture and mini-press story, they aren't being mobbed anymore. Reyna and Pepper are probably a whole separate level of superhuman. Cassie makes sure that their Christmas presents are fantastic.

Cassie could seriously live without the repeated baby speculation though.

On the evening of December thirty-first Cassie puts on a red dress that Pepper and Natasha deliver to her with bright, semi-maniacle smiles. The dress comes with spike healed shoes she thinks she could probably kill something with were they made of Imperial Gold or Celestial Bronze. She wears her normal necklaces, but in her ears she has a pair of gold arrow shaped earrings that were one of the presents she got from Steve.

Steve himself gamely puts on a suite and has his hair combed military neat. His own shoes are shinned to a ridiculous level, and he's wearing a tie which Cassie knows he hates. Someone has delivered a tie and pocket square that matches her dress.

They raise their eyebrows at each other and Cassie catches a look at their reflections, standing together in the mirror. The image they're projecting is obvious. Best behavior tonight. Tonight they'll have to be Captain America and Dr. Morgenstern.

Steve and Cassie are going to have to take a back seat.

He fiddles once with his tie and then takes a deep breath, squaring his shoulders. Cassie watches the role of Captain America settle over him and knows that at the end of the night, when champagne is drunk and the ball has dropped, he'll be shaken off and Steve will be back

"Are you ready?"

This is something Steve is better at than she is. He uses a defensive weapon for offensive attack and when he puts on the persona of 'The Captain' he's doing the same thing. Captain America can be the shield, the defensive layer, that protects Steve Rogers from the rest of the world.

It's a shield that protects the man she loves, so Cassie loves 'The Captain' too.

She lifts her chin and gives a smile edged in steel as the two of them prepare to walk in to a New Year. "Ready. Let's get this show on the road."

 **A/N: Happy New Year everyone! I was determined to get this published today as a New Years present to you all. I've finally recovered completely from a horrendous bout of tonsillitis and have spent the last week completely crazy with family stuff. My schedule for next semester is a bit in flux and might be busy but I'm going to try to put myself on a more consistent posting schedule once I figure out what's doable.** **Anyway, tell me what you thought! I can always go back and edit if people have particular thoughts or constructive criticism. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	32. Chapter 32

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.**

It turns out that there are quite a lot of things that have to be decided on over the course of planning a wedding. As it turns out, Cassie is right in her supposition that the first question has to be when they're having it. Given that they have a tentative date (Mayish, probably early) the next thing that has to be decided is location.

Location is apparently subject to the variable of how many people are on their guest list. If Cassie and Steve were able to get absolutely their own way, the guest list in question could probably be kept to under fifty people. Unfortunately, the central theme to Cassie and Steve's lives separately seems to be that they will very rarely get everything that they want.

If the only people invited to the wedding were people that Cassie and Steve knew and liked personally then all of the invites could have been delivered in under ten phone calls and a team wide email chain. Barring that, it would have taken a few dollars in postage fees and about twenty minutes of walking through the Tower. Instead, it takes several hours of sitting around with Pepper, Darcy, and Reyna talking through long lists of people who's presence might seem politically advantageous.

Cassie did not know that many of the people on that list were people that existed on planet Earth, let alone that they were people who's opinions the Avengers as a group were at all concerned with. Apparently, not knowing a person existed until you're told their name is not a good enough reason for not inviting them to your wedding if you were marrying Captain America and the person you'd never heard of was Head of the Joint House Something Something. Life worked in weird ways sometimes.

Is it clear by her lack of knowledge when it comes to correct terms in these matters that Cassie isn't quite so politically savvy? She will fully admit that Senate meetings in New Rome just about bored her to tears most of the time. Okay not to tears, but definitely to the border of unconsciousness. Senate manipulation is probably the only thing that Cassie will freely admit that Octavian was better at than she was.

In the end they put a hard cap on the list at one hundred and fifty people and let their more politically savvy friends have free reign.

With that number in place they can move on figuring out their location. That part goes surprisingly quickly. It's quick because Steve loves Brooklyn more than any other place on the planet and Cassie wants light. Brooklyn has botanic gardens and they have friends who can get them reserved for them. There's going to be a Stark funded greenhouse dedicated to medicinal plants come 2017.

At least when it comes to the guest list and venue Steve and Cassie can work together to exercise their veto power to try to keep things a little bit under control. They can be a team of two and make a united front. Back to back protection as it were.

The matter of Cassie's dress is a different story.

For one thing, there's the little superstition hanging around weddings that grooms shouldn't see the bride's dress before the wedding. Cassie doesn't know where that superstition comes from, but given her history it's not something she's willing to take chances on. At this point she's willing to follow up on the whole 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' rhyme if it'll help.

Basically, this means that Cassie is stuck trying to work out what wedding dress to wear with only the help of the opinions of her friends. This is fine, her friends are helpful. The problem she runs in to is the too many cooks in the kitchen problem and it quickly becomes clear that she'll need to whittle down her sources a little if she ever wants to get anywhere.

The other problem Cassie has is that she has no idea what she might like when it comes to fashion regarding incredibly fancy dresses. She never had much of an occasion to where one. It wasn't like demigods got to go to Prom.

Another factor is that as soon as the wedding is announced Cassie gets calls from every single high fashion designer she's ever heard of (and several she hasn't) telling her how thrilled they would be to have the chance to design her wedding dress. It's a lot of incoming information. Not having any idea how to field such calls and also lacking an assistant, Cassie is forced to borrow one.

Thankfully Jane is happy to lend and Darcy is happy to be borrowed.

And can Cassie just say that Darcy Lewis does indeed have a superpower, and that superpower is cutting through red tape and to-do lists like a machete through tissue paper. Cassie and Darcy start their day with a quick meeting and Cassie hands the other woman her phone. By lunch time Darcy is presenting her with a wide selection of what are called look books filled with designed sketches and fabric samples.

Cassie pays for lunch and spends the next two weeks making sure coffee gets delivered right to Darcy's desk. She also makes sure her table assignment is a good one. This means obeying Darcy's request to be seated with any of the single heroes Cassie can invite. She hopes she'll get along well with Connor Stole.

On reflection, maybe that seating choice is going to come back to bite her. Oh well. Too late to change it now.

Together Steve and Cassie can agree that the best part in all of their wedding planning is trying out caterers. It's amazing. Very well trained and incredibly amazing chefs send them plates upon plates of food for them to try, taste, and then review.

Steve has a surprisingly discerning palette. One misconception it was easy to develop about Steve was that he didn't care much about what he was eating. In actually fact, time and necessity due to metabolism had simply taught him not to be picky when there was no other choice. When choice was completely possible, Steve turned out to have a lot of different food opinions.

He's not the only one either. Bucky subs in for Cassie on one of the tastings when she gets called in to do an emergency surgery for one of their field agents and when she gets home the two Super Soldiers are having a lively debate over the correct ratio of chili powder to coriander in a certain chicken dish. Reyna informs her with a smirk that one of Bucky's hobbies is to watch Food Network for hours on end.

This is knowledge that Cassie treasures. She thinks she'll pull out that fact in her mind from time to time to re-examine. Frankly, she doesn't think it'll ever fail to make her smile.

Cake tasting is even better than picking a caterer. It's also simpler to a certain degree. Both of them want chocolate. Chocolate in extremely large quantities. After a single experience they can both also agree that fondant tastes disgusting and instead opt for buttercream. This makes choosing the baker they want a matter of simply eating a lot of chocolate cake with different forms of chocolate icing and deciding which one they like best.

The bakery they end up choosing is a family one run by a father and daughter team living in Queens. Both burst in to tears of happiness when Cassie and Steve tell them that they're who they've picked. Apparently, they'd submitted their cake sample on a whim and had never expected to be chosen.

They also get an invitation to the wedding. They've already invited nearly a hundred people they didn't actually want in attendance. The guest list can take two or three more people that Cassie and Steve actually won't mind seeing and speaking to.

Of course, all wedding planning would be easier if the people doing the planning didn't keep getting called out on mission to save the world. Or at least, that's what Cassie has to assume is the case. It has never been her personal experience and likely never will be.

As Cassie has said before though, the world doesn't stop needing to be saved just because she's too tired or too busy to save it.

2016.

Wow.

It's one hell of a year. Right from the very beginning it takes off and then just never stops. As far as years go, it seriously hits the ground running.

And this is coming from a girl who has had some fairly dramatic and extremely eventful years. She went to the underworld and saw the gods almost dissolve in to a civil war in 2005 and saw the Bermuda Triangle prove to be navigable in 2006. The years between 2007 and 2009 each involve so many disasters, catastrophes, discoveries, miracles, and world ending events that it's almost impossible to count them.

Cassie has seen years where death stopped, years where titans rose and gods perished. She's lived through years that had wars start and end within them and years where brave heroes died fighting for what was right and she's lived through years that allowed those heroes to slip in to the realm of the forgotten. She's lived through a year where the world found out that aliens were real and somehow managed to keep spinning exactly as it had before.

The near quarter of a century that Cassie has spent on this planet has been comprised of some truly incredible years.

2016 is a doozie.

Quite a lot of their time as the Avengers involves trying to help handle an outbreak of the Zika virus. Will, Cassie, Steve, Bucky, and even Banner have perfected immune systems and absolutely no chance of contracting the virus which makes them fairly ideal as aid workers. Will and Cassie together and working quietly are actually able to very quietly cure certain cases. They can't stop the whole epidemic, but they can definitely do more than the average person to alleviate suffering.

There's also pretty much a typhoon in Fiji that they do humanitarian missions to help deal with the fall out of. Before going Cassie makes several Iris Message calls to various godly relatives to verify that none of them have done anything to cause this particular disaster. Everyone comes up clean which tells Cassie that this particular disaster really is just a disaster and not a godly temper tantrum.

In an odd way, this is a kind of mission that Cassie actually can enjoy. There's no violence involved and no fighting to engage in. No one on her team is at risk of being shot, stabbed, maimed, drowned, buried alive, or infected with anything. The people here don't want violence, they just need help.

Anyone with a suit or super strength is immediately commissioned to clear rubble and rebuild houses, hospitals, banks, schools, post offices, and even veterinary clinics. All those with medical skills are pressed in to service just as quickly. Cassie finds herself busier on a more consistent level for a long period of time than she thinks she ever has been before.

Cassie gives more rounds of basic vaccinations and top up injections than she can possibly count. She also sets broken bones and dislocated joints and binds and disinfects cuts. She gives physicals to every individual she gets presented with and does her best to put everyone in the best health she can possibly manage.

She even manages to deliver a few babies.

And can Cassie just say that their was a reason she chose not to pursue the fields of gynecology and obstetrics. Sometimes she almost wonders what that reason was. Then she presides over a birth and all of her excellent reasons for that choice come rushing back all at once. There's a reason that they call the process of giving birth labor and it is a very well justified one.

Still though, there's a certain rush. It's a very particular feeling of accomplishment that comes with watching a new parent look down at the new reddish wrinkly person in their arms with an expression that says that a little piece of their universe now revolves around them. You don't often get to watch people fall in love.

Each time Cassie sees that expression on a new parent's face, she can't help but wonder if her father ever looked at her that way. She thinks that on some dim and unknowable level he might have. The earliest ever memory she has, the earliest ever memory of most demigods actually, is of a warm golden shine of light and brilliantly white smiles set in a kind face.

Of course, this mission with it's enjoyable factors is more of a rare exception than a common occurrence. Humanitarian aid is nice, in short supply, and very necessary but also not the primary working function of the Avengers. They are mostly an elite action strike force with independent funding and almost no government oversight which means that their job is to go in to nasty places and completely eliminate the forces occupying them.

Cassie and Steve talk about it a time or two. Steve also prefers any mission they can accomplish that simply helps people to the more frequent combat deployments. He's a truly individual man, a soldier who doesn't like violence.

One of the wonderful things about having a fiance is that it means Cassie always has a partner who can look at things from a different point of view to her own and help her to see a larger world picture. He tells her that he sees even their combat missions as life saving exercises. When they go in to combat scenarios, it means that other soldiers never have to. Soldiers and operatives may be highly trained, but there is just no escaping the fact that humans are more breakable. Regardless of how skilled they might be.

Two thousand and sixteen is the year that sees Iran have a successful nuclear power test. It's a year that involved ISIS and a million other terrorist groups all attacking people and taking innocent lives and constantly tripping over each other to claim the credit for doing so. It's a year where the entire Middle East seems to be going or staying completely insane.

All in all, it generates a remarkable amount to do when it comes to Cassie's day job. And her night job. And her extracurricular activities.

Monsters thrive on chaos, violence, blood, and confusion. Those factors draw the creatures of myth out and in to the world like moths to a flame. Human war creates mythological war and around and around the cycle goes in the most exhausting bicycle wheel of conflict and conflict resolution in existence.

The other thing that there's a lot of in 2016 is confusion. There can't help but be a lot of that in an age that can coin the phrase 'Fake News' and call it a real category. Steve would prefer to call it mass distributed misinformation for the purposes of causing sensation, panic, outrage, and fear mongering in a capitalist grab for power made by corrupted news corporations.

That rant gets longer and much more complicated and Cassie has listened to the entire thing. Multiple times. In several variations of volume and vocal tone.

She's also heard it done in multiple languages. Steve learns quickly and has made it a point to gain basic mastery of at least six major world languages including ASL. Clint's been helping him with that last one and he's been getting pretty good.

You haven't heard a rant until "hearing" it is done all through completely silent gestures you personally only partly understood and had no hope of responding to. Cassie can now say this from experience. In fact, she can say it from multiple experiences and not just a singular one.

2016 and the first few months that occur within it have prompted Steve, Captain Freakin' America to learn as many languages as he possibly can. From the outside this might seem like a gesture of world-wide outreach in the face of a shrinking and more closely intertwined global community on the part of a world famous national symbol. However, Cassie is in a position to personally know that Steve is learning as many languages as he possibly can in order to argue with more people more effectively on his own behalf without the aid or added trouble of a translator.

Reyna, upon hearing of this ambition, had cheerfully begun a refresher course in Spanish. Leo Valdez occasionally skypes in on these calls to lend a helping hand. He tells Piper who gamely plays her part by sending movies and other learning materials in French. This is all that's needed as Jones of the original Howling Commandos began the education a very long time ago.

Nico stops in a the tower with slightly more regularity than he used to and uses the time to mutter in discontented Italian within Steve's earshot. Cassie's not sure that she would quantify this as a language lesson, but Steve seems to be picking up a surprising amount. According to him, half of the battle is the right hand movements and body language.

SHIELD had had Steve learning Mandarin and Frank volunteers to help finish the job while Sam, Barton, and Rhodes bring him up to speed on Arabic. Steve had already managed to teach himself Russian a few years ago when he first began his search for Bucky and Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are bringing him up to date on modern Sokovian. For her part, Cassie helps explain and translate sections of Greek and Latin.

Steve is a passionate, intelligent, and stubborn person. He has a lot of well thought out and developed opinions. Now he can express them in multiple languages without necessitating a simulcast.

This is very helpful as 2016 also happens to be the year of an extremely tense United States Presidential Election.

So...

Okay...

Cassie really only has two words.

Here they are.

Holy Shit.

Just- Just-

Nope. That's all she's got. Seriously she has no words. Well maybe she has a few but none of them should ever be committed to public record.

Part of the Avengers press strategy developed by Pepper and Reyna is that for the entire shit storm that is the election no team member or team associate with any public ties to the team will publicly express their political opinion outside of actually voting or more indirect comments. This keeps everyone a little further out of the public eye. They have to make some kind of play at appearing to be politically neutral.

The problem is that no one in politics seems to want to see the Avengers as a neutral party. In fact, candidates on both sides of the political aisle seem to be perfectly happy to make all of the political hay they can out of trampling all over anything the team does. It's a little bit hard not to start taking things personally.

The other problem with that brilliant strategy is that no one on the team apart from a few notable exceptions can be said to have 'neutral' personalities. None of them are quiet or naturally cooperative people. They're stubborn and loud and larger than life characters who can only manage to exist in the universe by surrounding themselves with enough other large than life people to not feel so oversized.

Tony has been a media figure since the announcement of his birth hit newspapers. Everything from his first temper tantrum to his last press release is a matter of public record. He hacks government organizations to send insulting memes for gods' sake. His rant to Congress on having privatized world peace still has more hits on YouTube than almost any other Avengers related video.

Steve, as polite as he normally tries to be has never once hesitated to tell a member of the government to take their legislative agenda and shove it up their ass. If he thinks something is wrong he says so and isn't shy about doing it publicly or taking decisive action to counteract it. This is the man who ran around in the middle of a war holding a bright red and blue target on his back.

Thor is a godly prince who has never particularly needed to censor his thoughts. Loki had always been the brother to invest and master the political games of Asgard. The result of this is that if Thor is asked a political question he answers by saying whatever he thinks. If someone is being ridiculous or lying he announces it in a loud and deeply reverberating way. Seriously, his voice carries like nothing else.

Bruce is quiet. That's who he is. Still, no one in their right mind will irritate or argue with the Hulk. A gigantic green rage monster isn't exactly what you could call not-stubborn, talkative, or reasonable.

Pepper Potts is a woman who took great pleasure in pulverizing the glass ceiling so thoroughly that it turns back in to sand. She kicks through misogyny and the 'boys club' in a pair of fashionable stilettos. Following the new company policy about keeping mum is just as difficult for her as it is for Tony.

Darcy uses words as her own personal superpower and Jane (bless her) doesn't bother coming far enough out of her world of science and magic and where it collides to put on a verbal filter. Pietro and Wanda grew up in a society where political censoring was the norm and are too glad to be free of it to abandon the privilege for the sake of social ease now that they have it. Meg speaks at a million miles a minute about anything that crosses her mind and her worldly opinions are a prime example of this.

Bucky is quiet until he has something to say and then speaks the same way he shoots, directly at the vital spots. And Bucky doesn't not take opportunities once they're presented. That's not in his nature.

The only members of their team who aren't publicly very opinionated are Barton and Natasha. Barton's identity lives so far undercover that while the public is aware that the Avengers have an archer on their team, no one actually has his name or a picture of his face. Natasha depends on having as much ambiguity over her stance on most issues as possible to keep doing her job.

And Reyna. Gods. Reyna was a political leader of New Rome for a _decade._

That says as much as there needs to be said on the subject.

Cassie isn't good about hiding how she feels about things. She never has been. Children of Apollo aren't very good at lying or keeping secrets. However, what they are good at is performing, at putting on a convincing show. That's probably the only thing that keeps her from retaliating to some of the things that the media keeps throwing her way.

The residents of the Tower start staying in more where possible and Stark hires some extra people for the mail room, cyber team, and PR departments to filter through their social media, correspondences, and appearance requests.

Still, by around Valentines Day Cassie is seriously considering completely disconnecting their television and canceling their newspaper subscriptions both electronic and paper. Listening to the radio has also turned in to a near daily exercise in teeth grinding. Unfortunately, shutting out the world and pretending that nothing is going on is the only sure fire method on the planet to be completely sure that you will be powerless to fix it.

The mythological struggles Cassie and the other demigods end up having to deal with still keep themselves mostly centered around the known key dates for potential planetary discussion despite her own predictions of thrown off swatchiness. However, monster activity and deployment picks up significantly. More and more demigods keep getting attacked as they try to live out in the world and higher numbers confine themselves to their camps, nomes, and halls (for their Norse friends).

It's no great shock when Cassie gets called out to Albany in March.

What is a great big huge enormous shock is the fact that the all powerful being creating a disturbance in the demigodly force isn't there to kill anyone or wreak any kind of havoc. In fact, the being that pops forth from a dramatically appearing crack in the ground of the back woods of Albany doesn't seem prepared to do any kind of violence at all. Cassie, with her drawn bow and quiver full of arrows is by far the best armed individual in this scenario.

That she also has two hunting knives in sheaths strapped in various positions on her body, her feet firmly laced in to combat boots designed for mobility and grip, a full supernatural first aid kit, and has been standing in the sun for literal hours in preparation for this actually puts her preparedness in to overkill levels. Nuclear bombing to win a water fight levels of overkill. Mailing a gorgon head to Olympus to make a point to an emotionally distant levels of-

Oh. Right.

Never mind!

So anyhow back to the story.

Cassie's levels of preparation for a brutal fight. Yes. That is the point the narration that has now been reached.

Of course, the one time Cassie has adequate prep time and manages to show up ready to kick a situations ass is the one time wherein nothing she's brought with her is actually necessary. This is the way that the world works when you are a probably overpowered demigod with blessings you didn't ask for placed on you by your relatives so that they can one day use you to bail them out of trouble. You spend over two decades consistently blindsided by fate and then when you finally think you have a handle on things _smack_ fate gives you a completely concussive bitch slap by having absolutely _nothing_ happen.

Well that's not quite true. Quite a few things do happen. The ground cracking open across nearly a mile of Earth forming a massive chasm fifty feet across and gods' only knew (maybe not even them given the likely origins) deep is definitely something happening.

The fact that a figure emerges from this fantastic new geological feature is another something that happens. That the figure is about forty feet tall, carrying a mop (built to scale), wearing a tattered janitor's uniform, carrying a semi-skeletal cat on each shoulder, is silver from shiny haired head to luminescent toes, and wearing a name tag identifying himself as 'Bob' is another thing that happens. Maybe several things actually.

Cassie has never actually met this particular Titan in person, but she has heard plenty of stories. This is Iapetus, father of Atlas, Titan of the moon, and piercing his enemies with a really large spear. The Titan Percy gave a liberal dousing in the river Lethe and rechristened Bob, the helpful janitor. An individual of great power who sacrificed his freedom so that Percy and Annabeth could utilize the Doors of Death to escape Tartarus.

They had all wondered before if and when this friendly Titan would ever manage to find his freedom. Apparently there is an answer to the question of how long it takes for one gigantically sized super-powered individual to escape the pits of hell. The answer is, apparently, sometime between five and six years.

Faster than most projections.

Cassie's pretty sure the smart money had been on 'never, probably'. By smart money she means Nico and Hazel's knowledge of the underworld combined with Annabeth's knowledge of pretty much everything. Cassie will never ever bet against those odds. Too bad, looks like she could have made some money.

She puts a lot of thought in to her opening line. "Holy son of a- wait no-not finishing that, this is Greek mythology the answer will terrify me. You're Iapetus right? Or Bob. Which one would you prefer Iapetus Bob? I can call you Iapetus Bob. I'm Cassie! Welcome to the topside! Oh dear gods please don't accidentally crush or purposefully impale me with your broom!"

So by a carefully thought out line, what Cassie means is that she opens her mouth and starts just hearing words come out of it tenths of miliseconds after she sees the words go floating across her visual screen. Funny thing, while in her head not a single one of them is in the slightest bit misspelled or floaty swirly mixed up. Note to self, dyslexia apparently didn't kick in until the words were physically printed or had to make their way on to the page in her handwriting.

A moment later the giant silver head cranes down to look at her. "You are very small," is the first thing out of his mouth. The bass reverberations of his voice are something Cassie can actually feel without resorting to her demigod senses. "Smaller than other small mortals I think."

"Yeah," Cassie says. "Yeah I get that pretty often. It's a thing from my mother. I can be taller in heels but they're not great for fights which I thought this was probably going to be and wow this is so not what we need to be talking about right now. What are your plans while on this plane of the mortal realm? Do you harbor any malicious intent towards the mortals or demigods who live here?"

Yes. Those are the right questions. She's supposed to ask that kind of thing.

Liquid mercury eyes the size dumpster lids blink at her behind foot long icicle lashes. Cassie hadn't known Titans could have eyelashes before. Cronus had obviously, but he had been in Luke's body not his own. Luke's eyelashes. That line of thought brings to mind alien gold eyes in a familiar face and Cassie has to give her head a mental shake to clear the image away.

"You are sad," Iapetus states. He says it in the same simply way that Tyson sometimes makes factual observations about the emotional states of those around him. What wth all the time they spent trying to kill her, it was easy to forget that most minor monsters, titans, and giants were to some degree empathetic.

"I was remembering someone I lost," she says. "Lost and loved, loved and lost. Either linguistic choice applies. Anyway, about my question? I can't help but notice that you never actually, you know answered it."

The massive eyes blink again and in the next moment the shadows shift and the titan is kneeling on the ground before her. "I mean no harm to any living thing," he says slowly and solemnly. "I wish only to walk below the sun and stars again. This I swear upon both the River Styx, and the life of Small Bob." One of the skeletal cats, who until this moment had remained still and silent gives a disgruntled mew as though irritated at being annoyed. Iapetus turns to look at it. "I apologize dear fluff ball," he says sincerely. "I also swear my vow on the life of The Smallest Bob. He dislikes being overlooked."

The cat, who is evidently named 'The Smallest Bob' wanders down Iapetus' shoulder, and down his arm before hoping in to the titan's lap before moving down to the ground. The minorly monstrous feline wanders across the forest floor over to her and before Cassie can react she has a semi-skeletal saber-tooth kitten winding it's way around her legs, purring all the while. The Smallest Bob really is quite little, she observes. Maybe it was the runt of the litter.

Could litters of monstrous kittens summoned with skeletal teeth by a titan lord in a possibly demonic ritual have runts? This far in to her demigodly life, Cassie isn't sure if it's a good thing that she still runs in to this kind of question. People say you should try to learn something new everyday.

Cassie quite often finds that she doesn't actually have to try.

"I know how he feels," Cassie comments, leaning down hesitantly and stroking a hand along The Smallest Bob's back. The ghostly feline's only reaction is to begin a full body rumbling that must constitute a purr. Cassie takes that as a sign that her fingers will not be devoured and continues to administer her petting. The fur below her fingers is surprisingly warm and soft coming from a creature who occasionally appears semi-skeletal. True the bones of the spine and ribcage under her fingers are a bit pronounced, but the head that nuzzles against her knuckles seems perfectly normal and fuzzy.

She looks up to see Iapetus watching her and comes to a decision, extending her hand to shake. "I accept your vow and hold you to it as binding," she announces.

The handshake is an offer that she begins to re-asses when the hand that reaches out to take her proves to be twice as large as her entire body. Handshakes are so awkward when you forget to calculate for size differentials. In the end, Cassie shakes Iapetus' pinky finger, and Iapetus shakes Cassie's entire body.

In honor of their new accord, Cassie makes a few suggestions about the size at which people begin to take exception and what the Mist is and is not able to conceal from mortal eyes. Once the titan has managed to shrink himself down to a relatively inconspicuous height of about six foot six Cassie makes a few tactful suggestions about clothing and demonstrates her point with a few helpful pictures on her phone. The titan takes it from her, squinting at the image for a moment, and after a few quiet heartbeats of contemplation she's looking at what for all the world appears to be a very tall man with long silver hair, an exceedingly shiny silver dress shirt, and stone wash jeans. His broom transforms in to a walking stick and after a brief wave of his hand there's a rucksack like the kind hikers use slung across his back which Small Bob immediately hops in to.

The Smallest Bob had been committed to whisker washing for most of the exchange but is now lying stretched across Cassie's feet with his tale looped around one of her legs, headless of her potential desire to maybe someday go somewhere. Cassie doesn't have a whole lot of experience with cats never having been in a position to have the time to care for a pet, but from what she's heard this is fairly typical cat behavior. Of course, she once heard a news story about a little old lady down in Tampa who's cat suffocated her in her sleep and then nibbled on her face for about a week before the body was found.

If that doesn't prove that cat's are a weird species Cassie doesn't know what does.

"If you walk that way for about three days at a good pace you'll hit the boundary for Camp Half Blood," she tells him. "If you go that-a-way for about three weeks you hit Camp Jupiter. If you stop a week or so early you'll be in some nice wilderness in the middle of the country. Lots of sun and stars there."

This leads the Titan to notice, apparently for the very first time that they're kind of in the middle of nowhere. "I have had godling friends before," he says. "Percy and Annabeth and Nico. All of them cared very much about home and friends. Annabeth and Percy wanted to get back to theirs, Nico felt that he did not have one. Do you have a home and friends?"

A lot of bizzare things have happened in Cassie's lifetime. Actually scratch lifetime. A lot of weird things have happened to Casie today. Having a titan known as The Piercer staring down at her with deep concern asking sincere questions about her personal life is just now topping the oddity charts.

A little non-plussed, Cassie never the less answers the question honestly. "Actually yes," she tells him. "I have lots of friends. I've known Annabeth my entire life and I've been friends with her and Percy for over a decade now. Nico actually pretty seriously dates my half-brother Will. I live with my fiancé Steve, we'll be moving in to our new home after the wedding."

She knows that she's smiling as she says it. She can't help it. The very idea of a future with Steve, of the fact that they can plan that future and will get to really live it together makes her unbelievably, undeniably, happy.

"There," Iapetus says, and the silver of his pupilless eyes seems warmer and softer than she's seen it so far. "You are not sad now. Having a home, family, and friends, makes mortals happy I think. You are all very much beings who need company."

"Do you not?"

The words are out of Cassie's mouth before she can hold them in but the titan doesn't look offended. Instead he cocks his head. "I have been alone for a long time now," he says. "I do not quite remember having much company, but I am not sure that I am lonely. I have Small Bob, and now I will have the wind and trees and birds and the song of the stars."

Cassie gives him a smile. "That is not one of the songs I often hear," she tells him. "My father is Apollo, god of the sun. Stars are lovely, but I don't hear them sing.

Iapetus actually smiles at her at that. "If there is something you cannot hear, then you most listen closer."

"I'll do that," she agrees. You do not argue with a titan when they are handing out sage life advice. This is a working policy Cassie lives her life working under. "Meanwhile, I should get back to my home, friends, and fiancé so that the people involved there don't start worrying about me. Steve knows about this part of my life, but it makes him a bit anxious that he can't help me with much of it. And if you would like to talk with another immortal being sometime, Thor lives part time in my building."

Her plan to make a polite exit at that point is somewhat foiled by the fact that The Smallest Bob is still lying firmly across her ankles. "Ummm... Do you want your cat back before I go."

Iapetus surprises her by shaking his head. Instead of leaving he scoops The Smallest Bob up off of the ground and shoves the purring though now disgruntled fluff ball in to her arms. "You will be wed soon," he states. "In ancient times it was custom to deliver a gift of great value unto the house of the bride. The Smallest Bob has already chosen you. He will protect you well.

The protector and gift of great value in question yawns and kneads the part of her shirt that pokes out from under her armor with tiny needle filled paws before resettling in to her arms. Cassie is about to try to protest again, but when she looks up next Iapetus is smiling benevolently and she finds she just can't do it. Hopefully the super serum will keep Steve from being allergic to cats.

And hopefully demonically summoned cats didn't need food or litter boxes.

She has a cat now.

That was unplanned.

"I will go now," Iapetus announces, standing to his full chosen height. Before he goes, he surprises Cassie one more time by placing a somewhat silvery hand on her forehead and speaking a short string of Ancient Greek. " _Boreite na pate apo afto to meros prostatavmeno kai eftychismeno_." She blinks as the words begin to translate. _May you go forth from this place protected and happy..._ "Shield your eyes child," Iapetus says as he steps away. "Today you have been kind. I see why Percy and Annabeth so desired to get home if they sought to return to friends such as you."

"Thank you for making it possible for them to return to us," Cassie says formally. "They told us all of your sacrifice when they reached us. The demigods of both camps owe you a debt. Any kindness I have given today is merely a very small start in repaying it," she makes a blessing gesture of respect. "Go well and live happily. May the stars sing for you." With that Cassie turns away, screwing her eyes tight shut and covering the eyes of The Smallest Bob with her hand.

Theres a flash of light and a wave of blisteringly hot air washes over her back, whipping her braid around her face. The Smallest Bob lets out a surprisingly pitiful mew. When she turns around, Iapetus is gone and Cassie has been left alone in an empty clearing with a new and interesting massive chasm in the Earth and a purring possibly demonic cat.

Not the weirdest result to a conversation she's ever had all things considered.

Now she's just left with the question of how she's going to get home. She'd used the light falling through the living room window to travel to the detected center of magical disturbance, but she's not sure that it's a good idea to do that with a possibly demonic cat riding shotgun. Cassie lifts the aforementioned cat and holds it out in front of her, back paws dangling. "Any thoughts on this one Smallest Bob?" she asks. "Anything you want to contribute?"

The cat lets out a disgruntled meow, probably protesting the indignity of this position, and sinks his claws rather decisively in to her hand. It hurts about as much as being clawed by any cat does, which is to say like hell, but not literally. Cassie supposes she can't blame him. She knows from experience that being dangled by the arms by a creature at least ten times her size really isn't fun.

"Alright, alright, leave my skin on me please and thank you," she murmurs, cradling The Smallest Bob in against her chest again to support his little furry body. The cat immediately begins purring again. Apparently, this particular creature is both choosy about positioning, stubbornly unshakable, a seeker of comfort, and liable to lash out with whatever is at his disposal when angry.

Huh. Put like that, The Smallest Bob isn't all that different from a few people she knows. Maybe the Avengers can use a new mascot.

Well, if she can't teleport back home, she'll need a ride. A ride means a car, and a car means she needs to get back to the road. This involves about a five mile hike with The Smallest Bob riding along on her shoulder.

She takes a seat on the metal girder that runs along the highway to keep cars from veering off and transfers The Smallest Bob down in to her lap before digging out her phone to have a dig through her contact list. Steve and Bucky were both in D.C for the weekend to sort out the continuation of their wall a the Smithsonian. Tony had tagged along on the trip and brought Katya with them for some real world mechanical learning experience and Rhodes had accompanied them at Pepper's request to act as chaperone.

Reyna, and Pepper are swamped with work and Jane is lecturing in Norway with Thor and Darcy for company. The Hamlet jokes have been both prompt and bountiful. She debates calling Pietro Maximoff to give her a super speed lift, but doesn't know how super speed with a cat would go. In the end she calls Sam, who good man that he is, is out the door and on his way to pick her up before she can hang up the phone.

She settles in for her two hour wait by the highway and manages to spend a pretty good portion of it playing Candy Crush and listening to music. She's moved on to dangling a stick for The Smallest Bob to swat at when she hears a car honking at her from the road. Looking up, she sees Sam waving at her from behind the wheel of a sports car she's pretty sure normally belongs to Tony.

"You called?" he shouts over to her, pushing the door open as she approaches.

"Thank you so much," she says fervently, standing up and hiking over, slamming the door behind her and buckling up as they pull away again. "You are a true hero, and if it doesn't get me killed for blasphemy to say it, a god amongst men. And I have met both."

"Good. Bring that up next time someone asks for a performance review on me," Hill says with a wink as he puts his foot down, pressing the engine directly up to the speed limit and then past it. His prompt arrival is beginning to make a whole lot more sense. "And I hate to bring this up while you're complimenting me, but do you know that you're holding a cat right now?"

"This is The Smallest Bob and he was a wedding gift from a titan whose name translated out of Ancient Greek means 'The Piercer'. I didn't feel like rejecting the gift. In the stories, bad things happen to poor little foolish mortals who do that.

Sam glances down at the cat in her lap and hesitantly presents the knuckles of one hand for inspection. The Smallest Bob lazily extends his neck and sniffs before giving the back of his hand a single lick and curling back down in to Cassie's lap. Moments later he's fast asleep and purring like a freight train.

Sam shakes his head and turns back to the road. This is probably a good thing considering the speed at which they are now traveling. "I gotta say I'm normally a dog person, but the little guy doesn't seem too bad if all he does is sleep and vibrate."

"That literally might be just about all he does," Cassie admits. "He was skeletally resurrected using blood and saber tooth tiger teeth by one of the minions of the titan Atlas who was at the time trying to summon a relentless skeletal army to hunt us down and kill us so we couldn't go rescue Annabeth and my aunt. He's an undead kitten for eternity which probably means he doesn't need food or a litter box."

A glance to the side tells her that Sam is spending some quality time blinking as her information dump processes. "That'll make keeping him an easier idea to sell to Cap. Throw in the big blue eyed thing you got going and you're home."

Cassie's brow furrows. "I don't have a big blue eyed thing," she tells him. "I have eyes. I grant that they are blue and relatively large in proportion to the rest of my face. Are you implying that I use my facial features in order to manipulate my boyfriend?"

"Yes," Sam says blandly.

She purses her lips. "Well, you're not necessarily wrong. In my defense, Steve does it too. Telling him 'no' when he really cares about something is like kicking a golden retriever."

"You ain't kidding," Sam agrees as he slaloms through some of the traffic. Apparently, he's using the length of their drive to take advantage of his defensive driving training. "One minute, I'm offering the man a chance to come down and talk with a qualified therapist or something at the VA, and two days later I'm strapping on my wings and helping take down a terrorist network. When you two team up it's a nightmare. No wonder the media loves you."

"This is the kind of thing you should talk to Bucky and Reyna about," Cassie advises. "I'm sure they'd sympathize."

Sam raises an eyebrow at her. "How do you think we ever bonded?"

Cassie shrugs. "I assumed there was a lot of stoic silence and some multilingual ranting. Maybe some shooting of things near and far."

"We did that too. Barton came along for the shooting part. Not a lot of talking got done, but I think we became closer as people."

The mental image of the four of them camping out on a hillside in silence. Actually, given who they all are, that's probably an activity that they would all genuinely enjoy. Cassie and Steve have very strange and socially insular friends. It's probably a good thing that Sam and Pietro have both started working with them. Meg too. Talking is a healthy social activity to engage in.

"Steve does have a weird team building ability," Cassie muses. "Starting back with the Commandos, though to be fair I think Bucky met most of them by getting kidnapped by HYDRA the first time."

Sam makes a humming noise of confirmation. "Seventy years of intermittent tag teaming practice. Barnes scouts the people that might get on their side, the Captain actually brings them over. I figure it's because he makes people see that if you see something that needs doing, they should stop stalling and just do it. Pretty sure that's how I ended up here. Still not sure about you."

Cassie shrugs. "I still think the Fates might have been bored or something. I pulled some rebar out of his ribcage after the Battle of Manhattan. The odds of me walking in to the Shwarma joint the team crashed at afterwards as my last stop before going home must have been something like one thousand to one. The odds of ending up living in the same building as Steve in D.C are borderline incalculable. I thought about asking JARVIS to figure it out once, but I never got around to it before..." she makes a hand gesture that hopefully conveys with some accuracy their building A.I being transformed in to a magically powered android.

"You could ask Vision," Sam suggests. "Or FRIDAY if you want to know."

She does actually consider that for a moment before shaking her head. "No. No I don't need to do that. I met him. I fell in love with him. He fell in love with me. We're going to love each other until we're dead and possibly longer than that if what I know about the Underworld pans out. I live a happy life. I don't need to know exactly which twist of fate made it possible, just so long as it happened."

Sam seems to absorb that and their conversation on the way home is a bit more like small talk than they started. Sam continues to break speed limits and traffic laws with reckless abandon and explains when questioned that Tony gave him free reign in his garage upon discovering that he knew something about automotive engineering. This had come along with a dismissive promise to pay any and all incurred tickets. Sam is enjoying the free reign this gives him.

For someone who can fly using mechanical wings while taking heavy gunfire, a little bit of defensive driving is probably fairly dull. Cassie herself has participated in much less controlled modes of transportation. The Smallest Bob previously spent his time traveling via titan shoulder and seems thoroughly uncontrolled.

She's back in their apartment by three PM even after having stopped off for a coffee break on the way in. There's still about three hours to wait until Steve gets home and Cassie uses the time to take a nap. The Smallest Bob jumps out of her arms and streaks through the apartment in an orange tabby blur the second she opens the door and takes up residence in a pool of sunshine at the end of Steve and Cassie's bed.

It strikes Cassie suddenly that today is probably the first day of The Smallest Bob's little life that has been spent out of Tartarus and in the light. With that in mind, she takes the time to crack a window and put out a bowl of water on the floor just in case. She doesn't know if The Smallest Bob will need it, but she figures she better provide it just in case.

Then she changes in to her pajamas. This consists of an oversized tee shirt with Steve's shield on it in distressed print and a pair of shorts, both of which had been purchased for her as likely gag gifts from Natasha. With Natasha it's difficult to tell when interactions have turned the corner of genuine good will and incredible sarcasm. It's a very individual kind of talent.

Passing out is surprisingly easy to do and Cassie doesn't wake up again until the sound of the front door sliding over and FRIDAY's gentle chiming registers in her consciousness.

"FRIDAY," Steve is whispering at the ceiling in the kitchen. "Can we kill the beeping? I think Cassie's asleep and I'd like to let her leave that way."

"Of course Captain Rogers," FRIDAY says in her voice of cool efficiency. "I will certainly cease the beeping. However, you should know that Miss Morgenstern is-"

"Inncommingggg!" Cassie calls, acting on pure ADHD whim and sprinting full speed at her fiancé who very gamely catches braces himself to catch her launch to piggyback position. Then she cranes her neck around to kiss his cheek. "Thanks FRIDAY," she calls towards the ceiling. "How are you Honey?"

Steve grins and reaches behind him to cup the side of her cheek to pull her in to a deeper kiss. "I'm good. You're marrying a guy worth six complete rooms in the Smithsonian," he says.

Cassie smiles and lets herself fall in to the kiss for a moment and then pulls back to give him a high five. "Nice one." Then she hops down from his back and finds herself spun out and around back in to his chest, this time facing him. "You're marrying a girl worth one titan blessing and one possibly demonic cat."

She leans up to kiss him again and Steve's arms fold around her and this moment is coming home and everything she wants for the rest of her life. His mouth opens under hers and Cassie uses her grip on his shoulders to hitch herself closer. Steve's fingers trace a warm path up her spine below the edge of her shirt and pleasant shivers follow in their wake.

Steve pulls back. "Wait demonic cat?"

"Later Steve," Cassie tells him, shifting her fingertips through the short, downy soft hairs at the nape of his neck and shifting her body ever closer to his.

He swallows hard. "But-uh-"

Cassie plays a trump card and leans up to nip lightly at the lobe of his ear, taking pleasure in the way it makes his eyes glaze over a little. "Later Steve," she repeats. "For now Captain, your plan of action is to think about how your girlfriend you love and who loves you is kissing you and later you can mentally debate weather or not you think a cat named The Smallest Bob is an addition you can use in your life. Be warned, a titan gave it to us as a wedding present and returning him will not be possible."

Steve shakes his head and reached down, gripping her thighs and lifting. "Amended plan," he says. "Kiss you now, walk you to the bedroom immediately after, make love, order in dinner, then you can tell me about this demonic new pet of ours later."

"Good plan."

 **A/N: So what do you guys think? Personally, I very much like the idea of The Smallest Bob. I saw a bit of fan art online of Steve Rogers, Cat Owner, and I think it got in to my head. Look it up if you want to, it's adorable. My work is kind of nuts just now so it might take me a while to get up the next chapter, but I'm about to try cracking in to CACW. Obviously, there will be some pretty major cannon divergence coming up. Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	33. Chapter 33

**Disclaimer: So nothing is mine and you absolutely positively cannot sue me for any reason. Even if you wanted to try it would do you absolutely no good because I have no money, and am not likely to make any any time soon. Certainly, any of that money would not come from anything I've written here. All of that said, anything you don't recognize from a different source probably is mine, and if you want to use it you do have to ask me first. That's just playing nice.**

Move in day happens about on schedule and throughout the beginning of the month of March, convoys of supplies, equipment, and personal effects are being shipped up-state. For now they're still going to be in condo style living with shared common spaces, but the Tower is nearly at capacity and the whole team ends up agreeing that it's time to get moving. It's just that no one is about to go nuts unpacking until they get their for real housing sorted.

All Cassie can say is thank the gods for efficient friends and moving companies because trying to coordinate moving with wedding planning might have actually killed her. Instead, Cassie and Steve just systematically box up all of their possessions in order of the least useful to the daily required and trust that they will make it to their new lodgings. It's an act of faith, but Pepper assures them that it won't be misplaced.

In addition to their personally required organizational nightmares, all of the Tower residents end up required to notch in to high gear for their professional roles.

Cassie hardly sees Steve, Rhodes, Sam, Natasha, or Reyna for several days on end because they keep getting called to D.C to try to sort through all of the bullshit of the U.S government. Hill is likewise missing in action and Cassie is pretty sure Sharon Carter A.K.A Agent 13 has popped up on their side as much as she can be from her position with the CIA. Anonymous emails keep showing up periodically in everyone's inbox from Nick Fury giving advice.

Will and Cassie together become thoroughly immersed in the project of stocking their new medical facilities with all of the needed equipment and personnel. Added to that is the task of making sure that all of their files, research, and stored information make their way to their new facilities. At least this project is one that Jane, Darcy, and Bruce are joining them in.

FRIDAY proves to be indispensable in the process. Vision chips in to after demonstrating his abilities to interface directly with the servers. By the end of things, Cassie figures her data is probably saved in like eight different places. Redundancy has been made her friend.

Pepper tells her this is good business strategy.

Pepper herself is proving her own otherworldly qualifications by masterminding most of the elements of the move while simultaneously running her company. The fact that these are two things that can be done at the same time boggles the mind. Truly, if Pepper ever writes a how-to book Cassie will buy it and study each word individually to try to divine her secrets.

Thor and Pietro are being used basically as enhanced pack mules to help transport heavy or miscellaneous objects from one place or another. Wanda pulls double babysitting duty with Katya and it seems to be the impression of the press that the woman may actually be a super-powered nanny. Barton and Bucky seem to be taking over the job of co-ordinating field operations and training for their new recruits. It's a job that would normally fall to Steve, but the other two men are doing the job admirably in his absence.

Cassie hears the new recruits have spent a lot of time huddling in soggy fields aiming at things very far away. As a user of distance weapons, Cassie heartily approves of this method. She'd slip out and help if she had more time.

Meg has taken on the frankly enormous job of co-ordinating and setting up the dining and catering facilities for their new home. It is an immense responsibility that Cassie does not envy. Most of what she knows about the process is that Meg spends a lot of time muttering about wusses with food allergies and how trained spies and assassins should grow up and take their lactose tablets instead of complaining about how the cafeteria is being insensitive by not stocking enough milk alternatives.

May the gods preserve the soul of the next individual who complains about needing to keep a paleo diet or any such equivalent of a similar ilk.

All things considered, the biotech conference Cassie gets invited to attend is a very nice break from everything else she could be doing with her time. Many of the people in attendance are also stressed beyond belief, but they are people whose stress does not effect Cassie's life and contains a definitive end date in the immediate future. The people who aren't stressed are smug, which, while irritating, is also not something with an undue effect on her life.

The conference is held in Reykjavic and Tony goes with her to help debut some of the less destructive technology Stark Industries has been developing lately. They stay in a hotel which to Cassie appears nearly incomprehensibly fancy because that's how Tony operates. He rents the entire top floor for the occasion which means that they each get their own suite of rooms with a shared kitchen and dining space somewhere in the middle of a whole lot of empty space. It's ostentatious, but done for privacy, and after the last few months of media attention that's something that Cassie has a whole new appreciation for.

Tony and Cassie have never really hung out before. They've spent time together in social settings, but always with a group of other people around. Their one-on-one talks have always been somehow related to work or Katya. Sometimes just straight up sass.

Now they have some sort of unique opportunity to just... talk to each other.

Cassie thinks she earns some sort of immediate credentials when she proves that she knows all of the words to a full ACDC soundtrack for the first portion of the flight. Tony is acerbic, jabbing, and sarcastic in conversation and Cassie alternates between calmly unruffled response and giving as good as she gets. By the end of the travel time to Iceland, he's mellowed down and is talking to her in a purely relaxed way.

As relaxed as Tony Stark gets.

Which isn't very.

Hands up if that shocks you.

No takers?

How shocking.

They go and find dinner out after landing in hopes of staying awake long enough to beat the potential consequences of jet lag and only end up having to deal with one overly enthusiastic group of teenagers snapping pictures on their phones. The official paparazzi probably won't fall upon them until after the start of the conference tomorrow. Hopefully even then it'll be fairly minimal given that the reporters there will only be present via special invitation and probably won't want to be thrown out for being too pushy and personal.

"That's gonna be a fun rumor," Stark comments, popping a bite of roasted potato in to his mouth.

"They have come up with some interesting ones," Cassie agrees, sipping her water. The dish she had ordered had been described in Icelandic on the menu and she hadn't bothered trying to translate it before ordering. Instead, she had simply trusted to the happy looks on the faces of the other diners and the recommendations of the very efficient looking waiter. She had ended up with some kind of beef dish with a surprising variety of peppers involved.

Stark has what Cassie is pretty sure is some variety of crab cakes and an assortment of roasted vegetables. "My personal favorite so far as been that Katya is mine and Natasha's love child."

Cassie nearly does a spit take laughing at that one. "How would you ever hide a pregnancy in Nat's battle clothes? Do those dates even line up, like, at all?"

"Nope," he says, popping the 'p'. "Not even a little. If they want that theory to stick they're gonna have to credit me with inventing time travel first."

At that Cassie slowly lowers her glass and looks him dead in the eye. "Anthony Stark," she intones in a voice of the utmost severity. "If you start trying to invent time travel without telling us I swear before all the gods both known and unknown that so help me I will-"

He waves her off. "Stow the lecture Sun Spot. Pepper already ripped me a new one on the subject."

Cassie relaxes at that. Tony's more likely to listen to Pepper than her anyway and she knows for a fact that Pepper Potts can lecture like nobody's business. Still, she has one thing left she needs to say. "Alright. Well, just as food for thought, time travel presents a major immunological biohazard in addition to all of the other 'fabric of the universe' level problems. Germs mutate over time. Anyone who could come forwards would bring viral strains that no one has an immunity for because they've died out by now. Anybody who went too far back would invariably carry a whole portfolio of germs and viruses no one there could avoid catching. Either way, you've got a pretty good recipe for plague."

Tony cocks an eyebrow in interest. "Am I sensing some kind of demigodly explanation for the Black Death?"

"Not right now," Cassie says lightly. "There is one. But it's got nothing to do with time travel. Did Pepper not tell you? One of my half-siblings got pissed way back when and my dad had to show up to intervene."

He absorbs that wth a mixture of quizzical understanding and skepticism. "So you've never time traveled?"

She shakes her head. "Nah, it's never happened yet. Done a lot of other weird shit though. I've seen most of the underworld and the gods have seen fit to share a lot of visions of past heroes in dreams and such. As far as I know, no demigod has ever time traveled before. None of us would have the power too. Cronus is the lord of time, and he's a titan. No demigod children there."

Tony shrugs. "Guess I'll leave that to Doctor Who. Save the wrath of Pepper for my next major screw up."

He looks a little depressed by the thought and Cassie searches for some way to change the topic. "My favorite tabloid theory was the US Weekly feature that was convinced Steve, Sam, and Bucky were engaged in a gay polyamorous relationship."

She has to stop eating to whack Tony between the shoulder blades when that comment makes him swallow an entire roasted baby carrot whole.

They make it to the conference the next morning in plenty of time, largely because Cassie tends to wake up whenever the sun first hits her in the morning and she knows the value of large amounts of coffee. Tony's organized event security for the both of them and Cassie walks to the theatre where she's meant to give her talk accompanied by two massive men in dark suits wearing a small, bemused, smile. She's presenting the developed protein bars and some of the work she's done on potential treatments for autoimmune diseases.

It's nice to be getting press questions about her work and medicinal matters for once instead of inquiries about her upcoming marriage. She gets called 'Doctor Morgenstern' not 'miss' and no one refers to her as 'Mrs. Captain America. Given how hard she worked for her medical degree, it's something Cassie appreciates.

She also gets a chance to spend some time wandering around on the floor of the conference center looking at the informational booths of other experts in various fields of medical and biomedical research. Cassie's got no way of knowing from her own experience, but she gets a distinct and enjoyable impression of the whole set up as being vaguely reminiscent of a high school science fair. Though, she has to assume the information available at these booths, as well as the people manning them to answer questions are much more professionally arrayed and presented.

One such booth is handing out information in a convenient two double sided packet of pages. The print is large and decently dyslexia friendly and describes in good detail some newly found information on antibiotic resistant strains of viral infections. These elements, when combined, make for a very interested medically inclined demigod.

Cassie gets about half way through the first page when a tell-tale chill ghosts across the nape of her neck. It's the feeling of being watched by something she can't see yet, and it's a feeling Cassie is all too familiar with. It's a feeling that hardly ever forewarns of anything pleasant.

It takes a moment of thought and concentrated will power to check her first instinctual reaction. This would be to snap her head up and draw her weapon. Unfortunately, this would likely lead to general mass panic amongst the various assembled scientific types populating the room.

Instead, she rotates her neck slowly as though working out a kink in the muscles and casually casts around. No one seems to be obviously staring at her, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything, and about half of the space is still out of her view. Enhanced vision is a thing she has, the ability to see through the back of her head is not.

Moving carefully, though hopefully also casually, Cassie moves until her back is against a far wall. It's an easily defensible position is not a very quickly escapable one. In an ideal world, she'd find some high ground. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world, and there was no high ground to be found.

Suddenly she straightens at the sight of a familiar face in the crowd. It's not Tony, nor is it a monster. Instead, the recognizable form of Bucky is wending his way through the crowd, deftly stepping around the milling people, head down and face shaded by a baseball cap. He's beside her in a moment and gives her a small, crooked smile.

"The security Stark hired for this thing is shit," he says by way of greeting. "Seriously, they left for the perimeter forty minutes ago and never came back. They took their coffee breaks _at the same time._ That's like asking for your principle to end up dead."

"Still breathing," Cassie points out dryly. "Despite badly planned coffee breaks. The bodyguard thing was kind of ridiculous in the first place. They can't protect me from anything they can't see coming." She shifts a bit and casts a glance back at the information packet while keeping half an eye on the rest of the room, trusting Bucky to keep a watch on anything she might miss. "Hello to you too by the way. Did Steve send you?"

Bucky lifts and drops a single shoulder. "Not really. Turns out someone I need to talk to for Ops is here. Nat made contact, but she's stuck in D.C so I'm doing the meet. Apparently, they don't leave home much, and this is a neutral place." He sounds like he'd like to roll his eyes but won't compromise observational integrity. "Though part of the good faith intel for the meet was that it might not be that neutral after all."

Cassie sighs. "So when you say 'not really'..." she lets her voice trail away. She doesn't quite know weather she wants to laugh, roll her eyes, or compose a stern talking to for her boyfriend rehashing the details of how she is very clearly able to take care of herself. Maybe she should just record it as a voice memo and resend it every time Steve lets his protective instincts overcome his logic and better judgement.

"He knows you handle your own shit," Bucky says bluntly. "Don't worry about it. For now I'll just say that he was pacing a lot after the news came in, and stopped when I said I'd come in person. For now, everyone should just consider my proximity to you a fringe benefit coincidence." He shifts again. "Like I said, your security sucks anyway. Might be irritating to be killed by the incompetence of others, you know?"

"I do hate danger via incompetency," Cassie agrees casually, allowing her irritation to drain away as she turns to the next page. She'll survive a lot of things, but a sniper headshot isn't one of them, and that's something Bucky can prevent. "Who are you meeting then? Or am I not allowed to know?" She wasn't sure how far down the road of operational compartmentalization the Avengers Initiative had gone at this point. She doesn't think it's all that far, but she's spent enough time in paramilitary environments to recognize that it might be.

He leans over, making a show of reading over her shoulder. Cassie wonders for a second how much of the content he understands. "One o'clock."

A quick glance in the direction he's indicating reveals a tall man with coffee colored skin, a neatly trimmed beard, and the kind of dark suit that looks simple, but is actually probably incredibly expensive. The man listens intently to each presenter he comes across, asks an occasional question, and never leaves without taking whatever informational packet is offered. As Cassie watches, he takes a packet from the latest table, says a few last words with a polite smile, and hands the packet to a tall woman in a sleek business suit and obvious wig trailing behind him.

Interesting. Interesting, but not that unusual. A lot of the information in this room is worth having security on it according to the governments it originated from. Cassie and Tony hadn't been the only people to show up with added eyes.

"Crown Prince T'Challa of Wakanda," Bucky says in a low, but casual voice. "Here on behalf of his father King T'Chacka. The King reached out to us. Cryptic, but he mentioned vibranium so we're paying attention. Especially after Ultron."

Cassie nods once, understanding the situation fairly quickly. "Am I your way in?"

Bucky gives one of his sudden, lopsided, smiles. "If you don't mind."

She smiles back and pushes away from the wall. "If we're working," she says with a virtuous air. "No time like the present." With that she steps forwards in to the stream of moving people and begins to wend her way through it. Bucky sticks close behind her and slightly to her left, providing a decent shield from anyone not watching their step and in danger of crashing in to her.

The Crown Prince of Wakanda clearly notices her approach and stills himself in the crowd until she's drawn closer. Curiously, the crowd milling crowd seems to part and divide around him like water flowing around a smooth stone in a river. As she draws closer, she thinks she knows why. There's an aura of cool power emanating from him, the kind that can only be generated by a deep self-possession and inner calm.

Bucky stays a pace or two behind her as Cassie draws level and then pauses. She isn't completely sure of the etiquette for the situation, not having met any royalty before. Gods, yes plenty. Kings, none. In the end, she decides she can't go wrong with a respectful inclination of her head.

"Your Highness."

The man extends a hand to her and Cassie takes it. She gets it back after a warm, though polite shake and that in itself tells her more about this man than she expects any of his words today will. Everything about him screams controlled power, education, and well-trained diplomacy.

"Dr. Morgenstern," he greets in softly accented English. "Or is it Rogers? News of your engagement is very well publicized, but I must admit that I do not follow the tabloids closely enough to know if the marriage has occurred."

Cassie gives him a small smile. "Not yet. The date we've set is for May thirteenth. And actually," she tips her head as a thought occurs to her. "I believe I may keep my own last name. Or maybe hyphenate it. I'm the last in my family you see. Anyway, there'll be more fanfare than Steve or I want. Apparently, we cannot avoid it."

The Prince's face twists in to a look that more or less reflects Cassie's own opinion on overlarge crowds and too many members of the press. Apparently, a life lived carrying out affairs of state didn't actually make a person used to it. "I attended a political wedding a few years ago," he states. "The whole affair seemed rather more trouble than was strictly necessary. Have you and your fiance considered a quite elopement?"

"It's becoming more tempting by the day," Cassie acknowledges. Bucky shifts behind her and she takes it as her cue to begin to move things along. She tips her head in the direction of the booth containing her own research. "Do you have any interest in hearing about my research in to possible courses of treatment to combat the lasting effects of childhood malnutrition? It is one of my newer areas of research. I also have a few plans in development for the application and practice of emergency field medicine I would welcome an opinion on."

The Prince nods. "I am honored to be asked," he says. I would be most interested to here of your ideas for the application of medicine in... less than ideal circumstances. I fear I would have nothing helpful to contribute in response to your other work. My younger sister Shuri, she is the scientist in the family."

Cassie makes a small sound of realization. "So that's why you're keeping all of the information packets. For your sister. Why couldn't she come?"

"She is only thirteen," T'Challa tells her as they begin to move towards their booth. "My parents did not wish her to leave school. Travel for me is rather easier. Besides, I am afraid I am rather useless in finding her birthday gifts. I hope that as much information as I can gather will suffice."

She can't help but smile at that. The struggle of finding appropriate birthday gifts is one she's all too familiar with between her close friends and handful of half-siblings. Suddenly an idea strikes her and she hops once on the spot. "They send all of the conference participants a full outline and bullet points of the information from each presenter. I have a copy at my table printed out. You can have it to take to her if you want."

He pauses. "You wil not need it?"

Cassie waves the words aside as they reach her table and she retrieves the paper in question from the side pocket of her bag. "I'll keep the email. Here, you can have the packet of other conference information too if you think she'd like it."

The words earn her a full fledged smile as he takes the offered papers. "It will likely make her very happy. Thank you. I will earn many big brother points for this."

"I have a few half-siblings," Cassie tells him. "I'm always happy to help earn sibling points."

They chat on for about twenty minutes about Cassie's research before T'Challa gestures to the woman still standing just behind him. "My apologies," he says. "I was very rude. This is Okoye, a member of the Kings Guard, and my personal head of security."

Cassie takes her cue and beckons Bucky forwards after greeting Okoye. "This is Sergeant James Barnes," she says. The introduction is probably superfluous as Bucky's face is decently well known by now, but manners are manners. "Here, I gather, because my fiance worries _way_ too much about the safety of others for a guy who dropped in to a war zone with a literal target painted on his back."

"Sergeant," Prince T'Challa greats, extending his hand.

"Bucky's fine your Highness," he says, stepping up to take the offered hand.

They shake. And that, so far as Cassie can tell, is that so far as the information hand off goes. It's done quickly and smoothly and could probably be used as a text book perfect example of tradecraft. A tiny microchip goes from T'Challa to Bucky and the whole affair is managed for the time being.

Bucky and Okoye make their own introductions and step a little apart, conversing quietly in a different language. Cassie's pretty sure it's French and wonders if the rest of the contact is being made via royal proxy. Of course, it's also possible they're commiserating over the apparently dismal conference security arrangements. Cassie doesn't speak enough French to tell and is too preoccupied with telling T'Challa more about her research to pay much attention.

The Prince is a very good audience and asks several well thought out questions despite his earlier protests about not having much knowledge of medicine or biotech as a whole. Clearly whatever educational system they have in Wakanda is a good deal more developed than they let on, as is their country wide degree of technological advancement. It's information worth knowing and she makes a mental note of it to share with Steve later. Just in case it matters.

What she does notice in the middle of her conversation is the return of the chill sweeping down her spine. She also notices T'Challa stiffen and the rapid advancement of both Bucky and Okoye in their direction. She also notices the moment Tony arrives back on the scene.

The Iron Man suit is hardly a vehicle of subtlety. Especially not when Tony's voice is being amplified from inside it yelling at everyone to clear the room. Fortunately, his warning is headed.

The man with the laser weapon plugging off shots probably doesn't hurt the point either.

Bucky gets to them first thanks to a little assist from super serum and slides in to action with instincts born from about three intermittent decades spent playing bodyguard for Steve. Cassie finds herself shoved unceremoniously underneath a desk with the Crown Prince of Wakanda. It's a bit of a squeeze and not particularly a situation Cassie wants to be in.

For one thing, Cassie may be small but the prince is not and there's only so much you can do to change the rules of geometry and physics. For another, this position may be outside of direct fire lines, but it is also not a place that can be easily gotten out of should the need arise. Lastly, this table is of the metal fold out variety and Cassie highly doubts it's ability to hold up against laser fire. In fact, she's pretty sure the table is far more likely to melt and shower them with liquidized metal, and that way lies unpleasant things like surgery and skin grafts.

Apparently she's not the only one thinking along these lines as no sooner has Prince T'Challa been shoved down beside her than he's scrambling back up to his feet, calling to Okoye in Wakandan. She can't tell what's being said, but is willing to make some guesses. "Why the fuck are we being shot at?!" sounds about the same in most languages. It's all in the inflection really.

She can't see much, but they seem to have mostly cleared the room and gotten everyone who didn't leave in to cover. That's probably mostly due to Tony's early warnings and drone suit deployments getting everyone backed up. Bucky and Okoye are engaged in a battle that looks to be mostly about ducking and dodging as they try to get close enough to take down the... gunman? Laserist? Shooter?

Nomenclature being unclear, she'll just go with 'attacker'.

Cassie emerges right when things start to go wrong because of course she does. This is the way life works for her. Things seem to just be going bad-ish, she thinks she can take the time to analyze, and while she tries the whole thing explodes all over the place.

What happens sounds like it should be simple but in reality probably involves all sorts of complex physics she could figure out if she felt so inclined, but isn't likely to dedicate the time towards.

The man fires a laser burst at the same time that Tony fires a repulser shot and the two beams of energy collide in mid air. There, instead of one absorbing the other, the bursts fragment off each other in to a dozen tiny bolts of deadly energy and whiz outwards. The bits that hit the walls don't cause anything worse than some structural damage. The ones that shoot upwards towards the ceiling are more of a problem because the ceiling is where the light fixtures are, and those fixtures turn out to be made of brushed aluminum. Brushed aluminum is a surface off which energy, apparently, bounces.

The potential collateral damage to this situation is high enough that Cassie decides on the spot that it isn't something she can live with allowing. If you can't live with something, act to prevent it. Otherwise the consequences are at least in part your fault.

Praying to whoever might be listening that she has enough energy to actually manage this, Cassie summons her power and concentrates. A round ball of energy shoots upwards out of her raised palms, spinning and expanding as it rises until there's a thin, shining barrier of power trapping the deadly sparks of light high above the terrified bystanders and conflict below. The shield ripples like something between a solid and a gas, and Cassie flexes her outstretched fingers, spreading the protection as far as it will go.

The charges behind it seem to pop, exploding and collapsing in red and white stars, shimmering like fireworks through a heat haze. A very pretty little light show. It would be mesmerizing if it weren't so dangerous.

And it is still dangerous, imminently so. Cassie's magic isn't really geared for this sort of shield to begin with, certainly not for a prolonged amount of time. She has no natural light to channel and knows she is powering this through her own strength alone. Sweat trickles down her face and Cassie can feel her blood running hot as godly power flows, quick and deadly through her veins like high octane fuel in a combustion chamber. A taste like mint and old pennies is filling her mouth, the way it does when the power she's expending comes only from her own self and is not a channel of her father's magic.

She has to let this power go, has to let it die before it kills her.

"Hit the deck!" She shouts, and her voice seems to come out magnified and echoing to her own ears. "Now!" Thank all the gods she's listened to and the instruction is followed at speed. Tony and Bucky know she means her warnings, and T'Challa and Okoye both take a single look at her and then the light show on the ceiling before diving for the floor. Cassie waits just long enough for them to drop before she can't hold off any longer.

She wrenches her hands out and around in a wide circle, bending the energy shield upwards and around the fired charges, forming a buzzing bubble the size of a large beach ball. Her hands meet above her head, sealing the bubble as her fingers interlock. Then she drives her hands down, sending a deadly missile straight in to the ground right between the attacker's feet.

The force of the explosion knocks her back in to the table and the whole mess of their combined forms goes sprawling to the ground in a horrendous metallic clanging that kind of makes her ears bleed. Her head knocks in to the floor and it takes her a moment of blinking the immediate pain response of tears out of her eyes to gather herself. When she gets up, she does it very gingerly, trying as best she can to cater to all of her new bruises at once.

The explosion turns out not to have been too bad in terms of debris thank the gods, but there is still a massive cloud of dust and carpet fibers filling the middle of the room as a result. A fair amount of it seems to have worked its' way in to her lungs judging by the coughing she feels immediately compelled to do. Everyone in here is going to need a massive ass shower later. She thinks the fact that they're all alive probably means that they'll be okay with it.

"Every-" she tries to say, and then has to stop to cough some more. "Is everyone good?" she calls a little louder.

Tony, not unusually, is the first one to respond. "Fuck Sun Spot," he says, straightening up from the corner he had crouched in with a somewhat crunchy metallic sound that reminds her of a crumpling soda can that indicates his suit took most of the damage for him. "Where've you been keeping that?"

"In the deep dark corner with the rest of my daddy issues," Cassie says dryly as she picks her way in to the middle of the room to meet the others. The results of her little show are evidenced by a decent crater in the convention floor with their would-be assailant lying crumpled at the bottom. A quick glance at the ground confirms her suspicions that they're currently breathing in concrete chips and carpet fibers. In other circumstances, that would probably be cause for concern. "I'd talk to a therapist about it but I'd like to live my life sans straight jacket."

Okoye and T'Challa follow Tony over, demonstrably none the worse for wear. Cassie notices Okoye deliberately refolding a long and beautifully printed scarf back in to a mostly closed briefcase. There's dust all over their clothing but somehow not a speck has managed to settle in their hair. Bucky, by contrast, looks like he may have aged twenty years with the amount of grey dust settled on his head.

He's the one to duck down and examine the body in the crater. "He's alive," he concludes. He grips the man's clothes and hauls him out, laying him flat on the ground beside them.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Fantastic. Here's the sixty-four million dollar question, do we wanna keep him that way? I say, come after us and you can get wrecked. Anyone else got an opinion?"

"If he's dead we can't ask questions," Cassie points out. "I'm not an ops and info person, but that seems like it might be a relevant consideration."

She looks up at the others for confirmation or opinions and is a bit surprised when Okoye answers. "Keep him alive and immobilized," she says. "The government of Wakanda will coordinate with any required officials. We have questions for him as well."

The prince nods imperiously and Bucky shrugs. Tony sighs and begins telling FRIDAY to patch him through to Pepper to work out the administration of this situation. It appears they have a consensus so Cassie hunkers down on her knees beside the prone body.

"I'll need to fix him up a bit then," she says, a quick touch telling her that the man has an enormous mess of fractures including a few in his skull. She decides that these and the brain damage are the things to prioritize. She'll leave the rest of the fractures and burns as is. The man only needs to remember and speak. Cassie doesn't give a shit weather he's in pain or what he looks like.

The Hippocratic Oath probably has something reprimanding to say about that sentiment. She's okay with that. Cassie does have an in with Hippocrates after all. One of the few perks of godly family.

She cradles the mans' head in her hands and sends a concentrated burst of her power in to his skull, knitting the bone together and providing new blood and restorative oxygen to the crushed tissue. Normally she wouldn't perform a healing in front of virtual strangers like this. However, given the whole thing with the energy shield, the secret of her abilities seems like it might be a little bit out of the bag where the Wakandans are concerned.

To their credit, neither of them react. All she gets is a sharp and searching look from Okoye and a nod of what seems like respect from T'Challa before both of them turn away and go to work ushering all the living though shaken bystanders out of the room and towards the incoming emergency service workers. Okoye appears to be excellent at crowd management and T'Challa speaks with a voice containing the kind of reassuring authority born and bred in those who have parents who lead and expect that their progeny will do the same.

Paramedics arrive shortly and take away the unconscious body of their attacker. Cassie lists off the remaining injuries in a manner so detached she barely realizes she's speaking. She also gives the vital stats and has a dim recollection of ensuring that the lead EMT has heard her before she backs off. Everything is feeling a little bit foggy and unreal.

Black flowers bloom along the edges of her vision and everything she can see is wobbling like a dish of jello. It's very disconcerting, and Cassie is imminently aware of the fact that she should probably sit back down. That's a bit of a problem given the now semi-controlled mayhem around them as people rush around trying to get out of the room or contain the situation depending on job description.

"Bucky," she calls hopefully. She has to call. She's lost track of where he's moved to in the confusion and her vision is starting to move from wobbly to spinning.

A reassuring hand lands on her shoulder from behind. "I've got you," he says in a calm voice. "You need sun right? Lets get you out of here."

Cassie thinks she nods and lets Bucky guide her out of the building. He steers them both deftly with one hand on the back of her shoulder and the other in the middle of her back. The fact that Cassie probably looks like she's about to throw up might be helping them form a clear path.

They stop when Bucky deposits her leaning against the wall of the building in a beam of direct sunlight. The energy seeps in through her pours and Cassie feels her vision clear almost instantly. A breath or two later her entire being feels steadier and her queeziness is settling. One breath after that, and she's a bit shaky but basically normal.

"Damn," Bucky says and Cassie looks over at him to find him shaking his head as he watches her. "Don't think I'm ever gonna get used to watching that."

"I've never quite gotten used to feeling it either," Cassie admits. "It's hard to describe but... Imagine being about to pass out from battle fatigue, and then getting a shot of straight adrenaline right to the heart." She gestures around. "This is a quick fix, but not a permanent one. I'll be alright to go back inside and help a bit, and to talk to the police and get back to the hotel, but I'm gonna need some sleep, food, water, and a shit load of electrolytes."

He watches her a moment, then nods. "I think we can get that handled. One question, what was different this time? I've watched you blow shit up before and stop explosions in training. You never looked like it made you want to throw up before."

Cassie grimaces and then twists the expression in to a bitter smile. "Rules one through three of combat staging," she said. "Location, location, and location. That convention hall is a concrete box with no windows or natural lighting. I didn't have any sources to channel. All of the energy I needed to use had to come from me, and I am most definitely a finite reserve."

Bucky tips his head in acknowledgement and digs in a pocket for a few moments before coming up with a power bar of her own invention. "Here. You need it more than I do."

"Thanks."

They stay outside while Cassie eats. Bucky kills the time by flipping a butterfly knife back and forth between his fingers while watching the events unfolding in the street. He also taps at his phone screen intermittently, and Cassie hears the distinctive clicks of sending texts.

He sighs at having to text with only one hand and Cassie thinks over the problem as she crumples up the bar wrapper. "You know," she says thoughtfully. "I bet if I worked with Tony we could develop some kind of synthetic material to put on the finger pads of the metal hand. Something that would let you use touch screens with either one. I'll talk to him about it if you want."

"It can go on the list," Bucky says easily, slipping the phone back in to his pocket. "Don't put it anywhere near the top though. Aren't you busy curing cancer or something?"

They begin to make their way back inside and Bucky holds the door for her. "Not cancer yet," she corrects. "I'm looking in to treatments for autoimmune disorders first. Plus I'm developing some new migraine medications for Wanda, and a range of higher calorie easy consumption products for you, Steve, and Pietro. Speaking of Pietro, I'm already going to be working with Stark to figure out what material we can use to make him some sneakers that won't combust when he's been in them too long. I'll ask Tony about your hand then. It shouldn't be too hard, they make gloves with that kind of material already so people can use their phones when it's cold."

"You do a lot of work for us." He delivers the words with a careful neutrality that makes the comment one she can't ignore.

Cassie stops in the hallway which makes him stop too. "Despite what I _can_ do in a fight or combat situation, that's not actually what my powers are designed for. My father is a healing god. He hunts, but that's not his main role. Teams work best when everyone does what they're best at. Steve leads, you and Sam make sure he can, Nat manages people and Sam and Rhodes know how to handle the government so they talk to Congress. Tony, Bruce, and Jane all have brilliant scientific minds so they use them. Pepper runs the company that makes our independent existence possible. If everyone else is always doing everything they can to help each other, then I will too. I'll do the biotech that makes the rest of you safer before you get to the fight."

Bucky doesn't seem to have anything to say to that and doesn't speak until they're back at the door to the convention hall. "So if everyone's fulfilling their roles in this situation, whose job is it to call Steve? For the record, I'm nominating you."

"You know Barnes," Cassie says. "Nowhere in the material in the entire Smithsonian is their one single mention about how much of a smart ass you are. I feel like I should call and correct them."

"They also neglect to mention that faking your enlistment form was actually a felony," he says, unaffected. "It also leaves out the fact that when Peggy told Steve he couldn't order her to go home after dropping him out of the plane he said and I quote, 'the hell I can't. I'm a Captain.' If people thought I could put up with that punk-ass attitude for twenty years without being a smart ass then they weren't paying any attention."

In the end, Cassie is the one to call Steve. She does it from the hotel room as she packs using hologram technology borrowed from Tony so that he can see clearly that she is really alright. Or as alright as she can be. Tony called ahead to the hotel and their had been food waiting for them in their rooms when they had arrived. After that, a shower, and a quick nap on the ride back to the hotel, Cassie honestly is feeling pretty much normal.

Tony and Bucky use her recovery time mostly to talk with T'Challa, Okoye, and the rest of the Wakandan security team. Apparently, the truly important thing about this whole experience will prove to be the friends they've made along the way. Or maybe rather allies. Well, so be it if that's the case.

Allies are useful things.

Cassie relays all of this to Steve along with her own conversation with T'Challa and the events of the day from her perspective as accurately as she can while she zips around the room making sure all of her things are collected. There's not much to collect. She hadn't stayed in the room long enough for her things to get spread out. Not that she'd brought many things anyway.

Steve makes a decent show of being calm and collected over the phone, but Cassie's willing to bet that that's because he's letting Captain America do the driving. The shell cracks a bit when Tony shouts through the wall that the jet is on the runway waiting to get them all back home. Cassie can tell because his voice shifts. More importantly, he doesn't let her leave before telling her he loves her.

"I love you too," she tells him, suddenly wishing more than anything that she could reach through the hologram and touch his cheek or give him a hug. With the Captain gone from view, he looks tired and beyond anxious. "So, so, much. We're going to go get on the jet now, and then it's just a flight and a car ride back to the Tower. You'll see me in about eight hours on the outside."

In the end, Tony pulls some strings and Bucky probably threatens a few people over the phone and they get clearance to fly their jet at speeds that only just stay under the sound barrier. In fact, Cassie can actually feel that barrier rippling and pulsing around them when the jet gets close. It creates a sensation that tugs at the back of Cassie's mind just enough to make it impossible for her to sleep. Their flight time gets cut nearly in half, so Cassie deems it worth it.

The sight of Steve waiting for them when the Tower elevator delivers them to the main team common space and the feeling of his arms wrapping securely around her is worth considerably more.

"I'm alright," Cassie says in to his ear. "Everything is completely okay."

Steve's arms tighten around her by a fraction as his head tucks down in to the crook of her neck. A breath shudders through him before he relaxes and pulls back enough to prop his forehead against hers. Next, a line of three short kisses falls from his lips to her forehead, the bridge of her nose, and her lips. "Okay,' he's murmuring. "Yeah, you're okay." He straightens up and makes himself smile. "Come back to the apartment?" he asks. "You can tell me about the rest of your trip."

Cassie grins up at him and speaks in a saccharine sing song. "Apart from that Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the show?" she quotes. "Yeah, I'll give you the run down. Talk to Bucky for a bit about everything and I'll set up a slideshow. I got some nice pictures of the city. Tony and I did a great self-directed walking tour."

He glances over at Bucky and the two exchange a nod before he looks back at her. "Give me fifteen minutes?"

"Done." She pops on to her toes to kiss him, enjoying the contact too much to leave it immediately after the day she's had. "You're on the clock Captain. Have we got dinner or should I order something?"

Steve smiles. "There's sausage and broccoli rob on the stove and pasta ready to go. Bucky texted when the plane landed and told me too feed you."

"You are both officers and gentlemen," she says, looking between them. "I've always said so. Ask anyone."

Bucky frowns at her over the top of Reyna's head where the other girl still hasn't stopped hugging him yet. "Weren't you calling me a jack ass earlier?"

"Smart ass not jack ass," Cassie corrects. "Smart asses are much nicer than jack asses."

Reyna lets go of Bucky and turns towards Cassie. "I think they can be both," she says. "Smart asses and gentlemen. The U.S army made them officers."

Bucky gives a very dark chuckle. "Those idiots."

"I'm sure we've made them regret it by now," Steve says.

Confirmation of the point comes from Tony. "You did that years ago," he tells Steve. "According to my dearly departed father, the army started regretting the two of you the minute you made your unscheduled airdrop."

Steve shrugs. "Sucks for them I guess."

Tony turns to Pepper with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Please, please, in the name of all that is holy on this earth tell me that someone got those words recorded. I want to be able to play them over and over again the next time tells me I should shut up and follow government orders without question. Captain America can't be wrong."

Cassie slips out of the room smiling before she hears the reply. She's surrounded by idiots and misfits and assholes and rebels. Those are the people who have her back, the ones she can turn to no matter what. This is the extension of the family she had begun to pick for herself at age eight.

She thinks she's made good choices.

 **A/N: Happy Easter everyone! What did you guys think of the chapter? I know it's been ages since I posted anything new and I'm so sorry about that. I don't have a good reason for it aside from the fact that University has been nuts and will continue to be so for another month or so. I'll try to get a new chapter up some time in there but I have to admit it might not happen. Anyway, I wanted to get this posted before End Game, which by the way, does anyone else feel like they are holding a frankly unreasonable amount of emotional anxiety over this movie?! Sending positive vibes in to the universe for the mental health of anyone seeing it right when it comes out. The good news is, if people die, I'll probably fix it. My fanfic is here to give you hugs and heal our shared wounds. Anyway, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**


	34. Chapter 34

**Disclaimer: Zilch is what I own in a very real sense**

Cassie has been asked some weird ass fucking questions over the course of her life. She's been asked if she needs a magnifying glass if she wants to fry bugs and if she thinks it would be possible to actually steal sunshine. A boy from the Demeter cabin she had dated for exactly three days when she was fifteen had asked her if she could photosynthesize like a plant. She's also been asked if she can see color when she listens to music.

At least that question had led to an interesting discussion on the medical condition known as synesthesia.

Luke had once asked her to foreswear her godly family and pledge herself to the titan lord Cronus. That question hadn't been so much weird as it had been insane. Not to mention that the asking had been nothing short of surreal and deeply psychologically disturbing as experiences go. Cassie's fifteenth birthday hadn't been the "best of times" as Dickens might have said.

So when she says that the question Tony Stark is asking her is weird it should seriously mean something about the nature of what she's being asked.

"I'm going to need so much more context for what you just said before I even _try_ to answer that question," Cassie says, her words being picked up by the phone on speaker on the polished desk of her brand new research lab.

"Oh come on," Tony's voice says in cajoling and tinned tones. "The reason we hired you was so you could answer the weird questions. Just give it a shot in the dark. You should be good at those."

"There are shots in the dark and then there's trying to deal with everything you just said," Cassie tells him, beginning to open and unload a box of test tubes and microscope slides as she does. She can already feel her brain spinning over the question despite her words. It feels a bit like trying to pedal a bike in too high a gear, flying and clicking over space that isn't there.

The sigh that follows sounds a lot like a rush of static and yet still perfectly relays Starks' impatient tones. "Oh c'mon it's not that hard. Could being bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip give a kid the supernaturally enhancing superpowers of sensing crime and being able to lift several thousand pounds? All I need is a yes or a no here."

Cassie frowns even though she knows Tony can't see it. "Whatever you're thinking don't do it," she says. Just in case some kind of dangerous thought is brewing. A part of her starts wondering if she should immediately hang up and call Pepper. "I have no idea about the rest of it, but messing with radioactivity is never good."

"Banner was pretty clear on that one too," Tony says. "Don't worry, I'm not planning anything-"

"Which is only slightly more terrifying than you planning something," Cassie interjects.

"-but I've got a bit of a situation here and I need to know if someone's trying to bullshit me," he continues as though she hadn't spoken.

Cassie crosses her arms and props a hip against the edge of the desk. "Do better," she commands in her best I-went-to-medical-school-damnit-so-listen-to-me voice. Then a part of the earlier conversation floats back to her. "Hold on, did you say a kid? Did you abduct a child Tony? Because there are seriously not enough words in the English language for me to describe to you all the ways in which that is bad. Legal, moral, and ethical to start with."

Another rush of static, another deep sigh. Honestly, anyone listening to this phone call on playback would think she was the unreasonable one. "No one is being kidnapped. We're just having a little conversation which one of the participants is not at liberty to leave until we sort out somethings. Don't worry, I even paid for lunch."

Now it's Cassie's turn to sigh. "Put me on the phone with the very not-kidnapped child who got bitten by the scary spider," she says, mental exhaustion evident in her voice. Gods she'll handle. Gamma rays and super serum, sure, why not?. Radioactive spider bites might just be a bridge too far. She'll see how she feels after this conversation ends.

"Jeez Breslin," Tony says. "Between you and Cap which one is more bossy?"

"Spider Child," Cassie reiterates. "On the phone. Do it now."

"You know maybe it makes sense," Tony muses. "I knew Peggy Carter. I'd believe Rogers likes bossiness."

She rolls her eyes. "Alright I'm calling Pepper."

"Mr. Stark would like you not to call Miss Potts," says a young and nervous seeming voice. Gods, this kid sounds like he's about fourteen. "And to tell you that I had a really nice lunch."

Cassie gathers herself and accesses the pool of calming reassurance she keeps at her core for situations of medical assessment. It's the kind that provides reassurance and the vague sense that she can handle any and all problems with the right tools for her patients. "What's your name?" she asks as gently as she can.

There's a momentary pause before the answer. "Parker. Um, Peter. It's uh, Peter Parker. Peter Parker Ma'am. Doctor? Peter Parker Doctor. Not that I'm a doctor. You're the doctor. Well I might be a doctor some day. But more like a Doctor Banner kind of Doctor than the kind of doctor you are. Not that there's anything wrong with your kind of doctor! I think medicine is really important and a super vital area of study and innovation it's just me with the problem cuz I don't like dissections. Or blood. My class at school dissected a frog and I nearly threw up so-"

"Hey Kiddo?" Cassie interrupts. "I get it okay? You're name is Peter. I'm not in any way offended by your personal feelings on surgical medicine. I'm glad you've eaten and apparently haven't actually been kidnapped. Unless you have, in which case say the word 'kiwi' and I'll call the police for you. Just don't name me as an accomplice okay? Now make like Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp children and start at the very beginning. Tony said something about a spider?"

Pubescent Peter is clearly used to obeying female voices in authority because he pours out the story of his life for the last month with no further prompting or encouragement from her. It's a long story, but Cassie thinks she's got the salient details within about seven minutes. There's probably a more complicated and detailed version that takes approximately ten times longer, but she figures she'll hear it some other time. Basically, Oscorp is a sketchy company, a genetically modified spider bit a teenager, said teenager has been swinging around the city shooting spider webs and stopping accidents and petty crime (Cassie found the YouTube videos), and school field trips suck.

"Okie dokie Spider-ling," Cassie says. "Put me back on the phone with Tony. The two of us will have a chat and work some things out."

"It's Spider-Man," Peter mutters dejectedly. "The internet's going with Spider-Man."

Cassie scoffs. "Uh huh sure. Tell me this, do you have a driver's license?"

Long pause... "Here's Mr. Stark."

There's a brief shuffling noise as the phone gets handed around. "Well?" Tony demands. "Any thoughts Sunshine State?"

She rubs her temples and ten pinches the bridge of her nose. "Plenty. The ones I share with you kinda depend on what you want to do here. There's no reversing genetic alterations on a DNA coding level. Bruce has proved that one pretty thoroughly with his research. I can't know if that's happened to Peter without a blood test, but that's what it sounds like to me." She's quiet a beat then says, "You know this is gonna get complicated, right?"

"Yeah, copy," he says in short, clipped, words. "So do I bring him upstate for a physical?"

Cassie looks around at the current status of the unpacking and makes a few quick calculations. "Yeah that's probably best. Half of my equipment is in boxes around here. If you drive here and follow normal traffic practices, I should have time to dig out what we'll need." He agrees to the plan and is on the point of hanging up when Cassie stops him. "Call whoever is responsible for that kid before you come. Panicked parental calls to the police because their kid got snatched by Tony Stark is the material that paparazzi dream of."

"Why are you so convinced that I am kidnapping this child?"

Cassie hangs up without bothering to answer and goes to help her newly hired lab minions with the unpacking. The freshly minted medical research staff she and Will employed after a fevered month of interviews are intelligent and efficient people more than capable of setting up equipment and supplies to her specifications. The flow chart Reyna helped her draw up is no-end useful.

By the time the knock on her door sounds to indicate Tony's unusually pre-announced arrival, she has an array of equipment set up ready for any relatively non-invasive test she can ever think of running and a set of medical forms waiting to be filled in. She's even wearing her medically official white lab coat with her name embroidered above the chest pocket and her hair is bound back in a neat braid. She figures the kid Tony's bringing in is probably more than a little nervous and apprehensive so she might as well make the effort to look as mundane as possible.

The kid that follows Tony through the door is nearly a decade younger than her and about six inches taller. He's lanky the way that only a teenager can be and has an air of being unsure where to place his limbs so common to teenagers undergoing massive and unplanned growth spurts and have no idea what their bodily dimensions actually are. He speaks in a jittery quick way that reminds her of Leo and an anxiously well meaning manner that reminds her of Frank.

Gods he's young. So very very young. Cassie's no stranger to teenagers taking on the weight of the world. Two of her best friends have literally held the sky before, but somehow it seems different from the other side.

As Cassie gets older, she's becoming more and more aware of the fact that it's easier to do something dangerous when you don't have a choice and all of your friends are in the same boat than it is to watch other kids do the same kinds of things.

"You're Peter?" Cassie verifies.

The boy nods, opens his mouth, visibly decides not to talk, shuts it again, wipes his palm on his pant leg, and then holds it out for her to shake.

Cassie takes the proffered hand and gives him the smile she used to reserve for newly introduced half-siblings at camp. "Nice to meet you. For the record, you are allowed to talk. In fact, I'm going to be asking you questions so you're actually going to have to."

Peter starts to nod again, then realizes what he's doing and stops. "I can do that- talk I mean. I can talk. And answer questions. I'm actually an honor student at the science academy in Brooklyn. Which took me on the field trip with the spiders and the radioactivity in the labs that bit me. The spider I mean. Obviously the lab didn't bite me. Labs don't have teeth. Well I mean, some dogs are labs, and they have teeth. I'm gonna stop. Now."

She shuts down the next smile because it'll set a bad medical tone if Peter thinks his doctor is laughing at him and motions to the standard elevated exam table with a nod of her head. "Hop on up and we'll do a quick physical. Normal stuff like your blood pressure and reflexes first." Peter moves to comply, hopping lightly on to the table instead of scrambling like the other ninety percent of the population and Cassie turns to Tony. "You sticking around?"

He shakes his head once. "I'll stick around the property. Make sure the contractors aren't screwing with my workspace." He glances at Peter, "I'll be back when you're done and we'll do a campus tour. FRIDAY'll call me." Then he leaves and Cassie goes to work.

Peter Parker has excellent blood pressure, clear lungs, slightly better than average hearing, and exceptional reflexes. He doesn't react a bit to her drawing an ampule of blood for testing but winces when she pricks his finger for a hemoglobin check. He also gets more comfortable talking to her as the exam goes on and seems abundantly pleased when she offers him a lollipop as the appointment begins to wrap up. He wanders out with the candy and the promise of directions from FRIDAY and Cassie gets down to the business of analyzing the test results and cross referencing those with the impressions her magic has given her.

She's ready with her report when Tony comes to hear it a few hours later after having given Peter a tour and presumably arranged his transportation back home.

"This is weird," she states as an opening. "Like medically and professionally weird. The kid's got hyper efficient mitochondria, systematic hyper-jointedness, adhesive fingertips, near perfect muscle elasticity, and the ability to lift nearly six thousand times his body weight if the stress test isn't malfunctioning. He's also got twenty-twenty vision which he says didn't used to be true and can apparently sense crime."

"He mentioned," Tony says. "Said it was a feeling. Pins and needles. That kind of thing. No idea what that has to do with spiders though." He quirks an eyebrow. "Any thoughts?"

Cassie shakes her head. "Not on the crime sensing. I know there are animals out there that are hyper sensitive to environmental changes, cataclysmic weather events and that sort of thing. That's the closest link I can see, but I don't know anyone who could ask a spider for us. Believe me, I thought it over as an option. His DNA's also gone bizarre. I'm seeing what looks like fragments from three separate RNA strands. And so far as I can tell, those DNA changes are permanent. Whatever Peter Parker now is on a genetic level, he is forever."

A stray bit of her conversation with Peter floats back to her. "He says he doesn't get dizzy anymore. One of the tests I did was to look at the movement of fluid in his inner ear. The fluid in the canals is hyper reactive and doesn't need time to swirl and settle. His circulation is also nearly over efficient so he doesn't and won't ever get head rushes." Cassie bites her lip and then continues. "He says he has nightmares where he's floating in blackness and can't tell which way is up."

There's a moment of silence for Tony to absorb all of this and Cassie uses the time to re-order the file she's been digitizing with the results.

"Doesn't it go against medical ethics to tell me all of that detail?" Tony asks, probably to buy him a bit more time to think.

"Generally yes," Cassie says honestly. "But he signed a wavier specifying that I was allowed to share the medical information with those parties whose concern I deemed it. I've deemed it yours and Steve's. You because you made the initial enquiry, Steve because he should know about new potential team members in the field. Fury and Hill have maybe a dozen files like that Steve has access to. I also sent a summary sheet of results to Peter so he can read it all for himself."

Tony leans against the edge of her desk. "You think he's a potential member of Team Avenger."

Cassie leans back in her chair and drums her fingers on the arm. "He's smart, fast, and obviously wants to use his new abilities to help people and do something good. He's also fifteen and feels invincible. He's never gotten seriously hurt or had to hurt anyone else and he thinks being able to swing around roof tops is the most amazing thing ever. He's learning, and scared, and thrilled, and confused, and he's going to end up growing up way too fast." Her fingers stop taping. "He's like Katy," she concludes. "He's got a ton of potential, but he shouldn't have to use it yet."

"Yeah," Tony says the word quick and short. "I'm with you. I do remember some of what I was like at fifteen. Couldn't tell my head from my ass and I wasn't spending half my time upside down. Doesn't mean I know what to do with the kid though."

"Mentorship program?" Cassie suggests and Tony huffs out a laugh which she joins in. "No really," she continues. "It might be good for him. Have him work at the New York office as an intern. Pay him a nice salary for it and keep him busy outside school so he doesn't spend all his time running around the city trying to stop crime in a homemade spandex suit. Get FRIDAY or Happy to send him out to deal with small stuff where no one has a gun. Start him gentle and work up to bigger things." She shrugs. "Best I can come up with."

He nods as he considers. "Not a bad idea. Pepper and I are announcing the September Foundation soon. Maybe I'll shoot him a piece of the grant if he's got any likely projects going at school too. Might be able to announce the internship position as part of the program." He leaves muttering something about Iron Spiders and Cassie gets the sneaking suspicion that Christmas might be coming early for Peter Parker.

Cassie calls Steve to relay the events of the day and promises to bring home a paper copy of the notes. She then buries the electronic copy behind the same firewall software that Chiron uses to keep demigods off the radar plus a secondary encryption that Vision assures her is unbreakable. The information is further protected by the fact that Tony has an entirely self-contained electronic network and processing system maintained by FRIDAY.

She does all this because while the Avengers do work with the government, the government seems to be realizing that they do not work _for_ the government. Shockingly (please note the fact that absolutely no one involved was actually in the least bit shocked) the government isn't really happy about that. Senate hearings and testifying before Congress seem to be activities that take up more and more time for the government savvy members of the team and every time Cassie sees Rhodey the man seems to be grinding his teeth to someone over the phone.

Steve and Tony meet at least once a week. Just them, and Steve doesn't tell her what they talk about. He doesn't have to because she knows. The two of them are being strategists, planning for the worst.

Cassie has seen a little too much 'worst' up close and personal to want to ask what Steve and Tony together think that might be here and now. She also knows that it has to be planned for. The catastrophe you don't expect is the one that smacks you in the back of the head with a two-by-four.

So Cassie hides all of the information she has on any of the team in as many layers of security as she can possibly manage and hopes she won't need to use most of it. Her worst case scenario involves everyone she cares about hurt or dying with no way for her to help them. Having all of their medical information is only the beginning of her preparations for that.

Meanwhile, Cassie and Steve face such complicated questions as exactly how much stuff they should bother to unpack in to the apartment set aside for them in the upstate complex when they're just going to have to move again in two months when the construction of their custom designed house is done. The fact that both of them can and have lived out of singular back packs makes the process easier. Though neither of them particularly enjoys it.

Moving as a drawn out process proves to be exhausting. Making wedding and honeymoon plans at the same time feels like an exercise in insanity. Fortunately, both Cassie and Steve operate well on levels approaching madness and defying reason.

Spider-Man sightings hit a massive decrease online which Cassie sees as a positive sign.

And this is a time when positive signs are kind of really needed.

Speaking of positive signs, Cassie gets to tell Jane Foster that she's looking at a lot of them. On a number of different kinds of tests. It gives Cassie some interesting things to sort through during the month of March. Not that she had been bored. As previously established, several dozen things are going on in her life at the moment.

It's still nice when the enormous life altering things are happening to other people.

She breaks the news in Thor and Jane's newly minted and pine fresh living room. It's a cozily, though haphazardly, furnished room that reflects the somewhat scattered personalities of the home owners. The furniture is comfortable though mismatched with arm chairs big enough for even Thor to recline comfortably, and there are piles of books scattered across the floor. The really impressive feature is the entirely clear glass ceiling. It actually reminds her a bit of the descriptions of the ceiling of the Great Hall in the Harry Potter books.

Jane is making toast when Cassie pops her head through the kitchen door, FRIDAY having let her in to the apartment. "Knock knock," she says. "Sorry, I would have rung the doorbell but FRIDAY opened the door as I was coming down the hall so I figured she told you I was coming."

She waves her hands in dismissal of the apology which is nice, but a little dangerous considering she's still holding a knife covered with some kind of dark purple jam. "Don't worry about it. I'm on a research break, figured I'd make it a meal time."

Cassie neglects to mention that it's currently nearly three in the afternoon and therefore in no way close to a normally designated meal. It's even farther from any mean she knows of where toast is involved. Given the news she's about to have to drop, she figures she'll let Jane have her toast.

"By all means continue," Cassie says with a gesture. "If you're going through a jam phase just say. Steve got a little obsessed with this black current kind over in London. Stark found out and imported a case of it because he thought it was funny."

"Remind me to drop some hints next time I'm around Tony," Jane says, licking her knife and catching the drops that start to slip off towards her sweater. "I'm with Steve. Fortnam and Mason black current preserve is seriously amazing."

Cassie makes a snap decision and makes for the electric kettle. "You know what, I skipped lunch. Throw another piece of bread in the toaster for me and I'll make tea. We'll make this a thing. Thinking of the U.K has reminded me that tea time is almost literally anytime. We haven't got scones, but if you've got the stuff we can make some strange finger sandwiches."

Jane makes a face that transforms in to a pleased grin when the toaster pops. "Living with Thor has put me off tiny food. When we were living in the city we did most of our grocery shopping at Costco. Darcy's got us set up with Amazon deliveries now. Is anyone hacks our account they're gonna think I've got a football team in the basement. Or eight kids."

Cassie manages to laugh, but thinks it sounds maybe a little hysterical. Thankfully the whistling of the kettle covers up the weirder notes. She pours out and Jane murmurs something distracted about there being shortbread cookies in a tin somewhere. The search for said tin takes them long enough for their tea to cool to the non-tongue scalding temperature and culminates with them both staring speculatively at the top of the refrigerator.

"Don't suppose you've got a step stool around have you?" Cassie asks hopefully.

Jane shakes her head in mourning. "No. Normally I just call for Thor and he reaches. Or picks me up. Or makes me float. Which was really surprising the first time but has turned out pretty convenient. When he's not here I climb the counters."

Cassie nods in understanding. "Me too. Hazards of loving the six foot plus men. Your house ends up organized so you can't get at half of the things you need. Pepper keeps trying to buy me heels."

"Shoes are how she expresses friendship. The more expensive the better. I wear the heels when I know I'm going to either kiss Thor or smack him across the face." Jane turns aside and begins rifling through a drawer before popping back up with a half full container of Oreos. She considers the package and then pops a cookie in to her mouth. "These'll work."

They move to the kitchen island with their tea, toast, and Oreos for their improvised tea time. "You've smacked Thor in the face?"

She nods. "When everything with the convergence was starting and he first showed up. He had been in New York for the battle but hadn't stopped by to visit so I was a little pissed, not to mention freaked because I'd just absorbed the ether. And there he was in the big red cape and armor holding his hammer standing in a perfect dry spot even though it was raining everywhere else. Before I knew it I was in front of him and hauling off. Then I apologized, then he apologized, and well," she waves an Oreo. "We went from there. He tells me when he's going off planet now, and Heimdall sends me updates if he's doing something dangerous."

Cassie slowly lowers her tea cup as her brain adapts to this news. "You get updates from the all powerful watcher of Asgard about when your boyfriend might be heading home? There's a godly messaging system for that?"

"Yeah," Jane says with a nod towards what looks like an ornate hand mirror propped against the fruit bowl. "That mirror over there. Glows gold when he's on the way home. Blue if he's going to be gone more than five days. Red if it'll be more than ten. It's supposed to turn black if there's an emergency and then I'm supposed to call Fury, Hill, and Steve in that order."

That- Well, that takes a moment to process. Cassie's dad has missed out on at least half of her birthdays and has never once talked with her about her mom. She doesn't know of a single demigod who has managed to spend more than three consecutive days with their godly parent and she's never heard of a god spending longer than a year intermittently visiting a human with the exception of Hermes checking in on May Castellan.

And Thor lets Jane know when he's going to be late for dinner.

Well not exactly. But the principle is the same. It's a bit of a pill to swallow.

Something of what she's thinking must show up on her face because Jane reaches out and covers Cassie's hand where it holds her mug of tea. "Are you alright?"

Cassie bites her lip, but nods. "Yeah, fine. It's just-" she searches for the words she wants for a second before they bubble to the surface. "Half my family is gods. I've lived my entire life with them interfering, and I don't have a magic mirror telling me when my dad is coming home." She shrugs. "All of my friends have similar stories. Greek, Roman, Norse, all demigods live some version of that outline so I just figured that was how it was. But Thor lives here on Earth and buys you pop tarts and worries about weather you've eaten dinner."

She picks up an Oreo in her free hand and rolls it between her fingers. "Now I'm wondering if maybe my gods are just bigger jack asses than I thought." There's an ominous rumble of thunder and Cassie rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," she mutters. "I'll apologize when you prove me wrong." She manages to give Jane a small smile. "Maybe Thor is just a really freaking amazing exception to my idea of godly norms and the two of you are incredibly lucky to have found each other. For what it's worth, I'm glad he's been proving me wrong. It's just a little unsettling is all. Throws off the world view a little."

Jane smiles back at her and slathers jam on another piece of toast before holding it out to her. "Thor seems to have a way of doing that to people when he shows up. The moment I got my head around the idea that he actually was a god and not just a crazy buff guy suffering delusions, it was like my brain pretty much expanded out of my head." She tips her head. "And some people act like it was a huge shock, no lightning pun intended, when I couldn't get back to a normal life after."

Cassie takes in a sharp breath. "Yeah. Jane, about that whole normality thing..."

"Is it as completely out the window as I thought it was going to be the moment Thor's Asgardian healer friends said the words 'soul forge'?" Jane asks. Cassie grimaces and Jane puts her cup down on the table. "Farther than I thought?"

"You could say that," Cassie says carefully. Then she downs the rest of her tea, scalding her tongue in the process. A bit of sunshine filters in through the glass ceiling on to her skin and Cassie feels the skin heal just as quickly as it had burned. Next she looks back at Jane. "So this news is kind of a double header and I'm not sure how to prioritize it. The categories are pretty much the Ether and the Other Thing. Which do you want first?"

Jane considers. "Is one better than the other? Like a good news/bad news dichotomy, or are they equal measure on the normality through the window scale?"

Cassie runs through the ramifications of both sides of the news she's about to dump on Jane's head. "I'd call it even."

"Start with the Ether news then," Jane decides. "I've been working on understanding some of that through some of my research in to astrophysics and Banner's been helping me. And Thor has brought me a few books and answered the questions I could figure out how to ask. Then maybe, if that news hits me too hard and I need a break, you can come back tomorrow for round two."

Cassie nods and pauses to get her thoughts in order. "Well, the big thing that never made sense to me about the Ether was how you survived it for as long as you did. No offense or anything," she tacks on hurriedly.

Jane waves her on. "Don't worry about it. No one was more surprised by the fact that I didn't end up dead from that than I am. Please go on."

Taking the invitation, Cassie continues. "The Ether was- is, a cosmic level power. According to what Bruce has been able to tell me on the energy signatures, it scores on a level with the Tesseract stone now embedded in Vision's head. It should have burned through you in seconds, not let you carry it around inside you for nearly a week. I couldn't figure it out, so eventually I stopped trying to read it like an energy source and looked for other options. I looked for living things that us hosts."

"Like parasites you mean?"

Jane asks the question like it's purely academic which Cassie takes as a sign of encouragement. At least from a perspective of academia Jane can't be freaking out just yet.

"Yeah," Cassie confirms. "Exactly like. Now medically speaking, controlling parasitic organisms tend to steer their hosts in to destructive behavior so that they can be consumed and complete their life cycle, but not all parasites follow the trend, especially not the godly mythology ones. Thinking like that I called some friends over in Brooklyn. The gods they deal with like to hitch rides in their brains when they can't find a better host spirit. My friends said that a few times when the gods were hitching, they were able to channel huge amounts of power they haven't been able to access before or since to keep themselves alive. The gods involved changed their abilities. Anubis fully merged with a boy named Walt, but to do it the god fixed a generative genetic condition in Walt first. The parasite put the host in the best shape possible to better its own short term survival chances. More symbiosis than harmful parasitism."

"So you think the Ether changed me so that I wouldn't die while it was still inside me," Jane surmises. "That would make sense. While the Ether was inside me, it used to keep away people that scared me or threatened me. But I couldn't control any of it and the- the explosions would happen weather the threat was real or not, weather I wanted to act or not."

Cassie peels off the top half of her Oreo and licks a bit of the filling. "Right. So I started looking at your blood and DNA to analyze your cell structure. About three months ago I noticed something a little off, so I started running tests over time. You know this part because I told you when I drew the blood. The thing is, they aren't really changing from time to time."

With a pensive expression, Jane sips at her tea. "And they should be I'm guessing. Otherwise you wouldn't be bothering to tell me about it."

Finger drumming is a tick Cassie developed as a child and did her best to kick as a teenager. Apparently she wasn't so successful because her middle and index fingers are just tap tap tapping away on the marble surface of the counter.

"Human cells change," Cassie states. "They break down and get replaced. Genetic markers and bodily signatures in your cells change as you get older. Your cells- they're acting like Steve's or Bucky's. Like mine even. Repairing quickly and barely breaking down."

Jane frowns. "But I still get hurt," she protests. "And I don't heal any quicker. See," she rolls up her right sleeve to show a large purple band aid. Cassie's medical senses let her know that there's a large scrape underneath. Taken together with the bruises she can now tell are decorating Jane's shins, she's guessing her friend took a spill on the stairs.

Stairs are evil. Cassie's sticking with that.

"Your skin, muscle, bone, and other bodily construction pieces, for lack of a better term, aren't any less vulnerable to trauma," Cassie explains. "Trauma and break down over time are two different things. Your cells take damage and heal again exactly as per normal. They just aren't aging the way normal human cells do. Looking at my data over time, I'd call it one fourth the speed. Maybe one fifth."

There's a very long moment of silence as Janes' mind spins, desperately trying to catch up with what Cassie's just told her. Cassie lets the moment stretch. The kind of bomb she's just dropped will need that time. Time for the concussive wave to pass. The explosion of sound will come later.

In five, four, three, two-

"I'M NOT AGING?!"

There it is.

Cassie winces a little internally and then makes herself pull it together and posts up her medical manners. "You are," she assures. "You definitely are. Just slower. Bucky ages slower than a normal human but a bit faster than Steve. Steve's hitting about one half the rate. Since coming out of the ice, his body has aged approximately two years from a medical stand point. He should have sixty more years. If nothing kills him, he'll probably get another century. I'm looking at something similar given that each time I heal all my cells get a reset. You- you'll probably get two and a half. Maybe three."

Jane collapses backwards gaping at her. "Three. Centuries." She breaks down the last word in to each of its individual parts. Cassie supposes that might be a sign that she's trying to maintain some sense of control. She nods and jane collapses back in her chair. "Well fuck the damn bucket list and five year plan," she says, throwing up her hands. A realization passes across her face. "I need to start working on climate change! If I'm going to be here for three centuries I need the planet in better shape. We are nowhere close to having a big enough commitment to solving climate change. The sea level is rising at an alarming rate! Don't even get me started on the Ozone Layer!"

"Ready for Big News Part Two?" Cassie asks dryly.

Her friend stares at her, mouth opening and shutting repeatedly. "I need something other than tea and cookies if the next thing you drop on me is any BIGGER than tripling my life span."

This time Cassie's wince is more external than she might have liked. "About that. Can I have your hand for a second? I wanna check something."

Jane stares at her and then extends her hand wordlessly, clearly unable to believe that anything she has left to say can be a bigger bomb blast in the middle of her life than what Cassie's just told her. Cassie takes her wrist, placing her fingers over the place where her pulse is clearest and focuses the part of her mind that tracks rhythms on the pattern of the beats. The tempo is steady if a bit faster than usual from the last five minutes of shocks and revelations.

 _Thub dub, thub dub, thub dub, thub dub._

One two, three four. One two, three four.

And underneath that...

 _Thub dub thub dub thub dub thub dub thub dub._

One two three four one two three four one two three four.

"Yeah..." Cassie says, stretching the word like taffy as she gives Jane back her hand and lets the last bit of the jigsaw puzzle in her head that represents Jane as a living organism she might have to heal clicks in to place. "You're gonna wanna skip that drink. And coffee. For, if my senses are up to scratch, which I fully admit they may not be in this area since it's not really something I deal with much, exactly twenty-eight weeks and three days."

Jane blanches. "Oh don't tell me. I mean I'm not-" her hands drop to her stomach and her gaze follows. Then switches rapidly between that, the empty jam jar, and Cassie's face. "Seriously?"

"Congratulations?" Cassie tries weakly. A thought strikes her and she hops down from her stool, coming around the counter and shifting Janes' hand to put hers there. "Here," she uses a quick trick of audio manipulation, amplifying the rhythm she can sense running below those generated by Janes' natural patterns so that it can be heard, a tiny drumming echoing in the silence of the room. "Too early for gender, but we've got heart beat."

Her position next to Jane's chair turns out to be a very lucky thing. It means she's in the right place to catch the other woman when she passes out.

Other lucky things; regardless of positioning, Cassie is actually strong enough to do the catching thanks to the godliness in her bloodlines. Jane is also about her own size and happens to be sitting down at the time of her abrupt loss of consciousness. This means that there is, fortunately, not very far for her to fall anyway.

Cassie manages to shift her friend over to the couch and thanks whichever minor god happened to be in charge of interior decorating for the current trend in open floor plan house designs. She isn't all that worried about Jane's actual health given that according to her magic, her friend is technically physically fine, just shocked. She goes to bring a glass of water and their snacks in from the kitchen and returns to find Jane already blinking her way back to awareness.

"Here," she says, extending the glass. "Drink up. You'd be shocked how much of what you learn in the early stages of a medical degree revolves around making people hydrate the right way. That, and telling people they aren't getting enough sleep. Which, by the way, you are not. I'd work on that."

Jane stares up at her with a baleful expression and pointedly chugs the entire contents of the glass. She's possibly not quite ready for conversation yet. Clearly, the path forwards will need to be forged by Cassie.

"I'll tell Darcy and FRIDAY to set you phone reminders," she decides aloud, in what she hopes is a calming and cheerful tone. She perches on the couch next to Jane and takes her hand again. "I'm sorry. There was almost definitely a better way to say that, I just don't know what it is. I don't do a lot of news-breaking. Most of my work is in labs, humanitarian basics, or triage scenarios." She pauses. "Is section A or section B hitting you harder? We can prioritize."

The sound Jane makes could best be described as a chocked laugh. "Well apparently I'm going to have double the time to handle the first bit so I guess part B." Her free hand flutters unconsciously over to her stomach. "Didn't you tell me once that this was pretty much the exact situation to avoid?"

Cassie winces. "Well yeah technically. But I didn't know you and Thor or what your relationship was like as well then as I do now. And," she stops and swallows, trying to rid her mouth of the faint bitterness that accompanies her next words. "I think this might be different. For one thing, you know me, and I know other people to talk to. Percy's mom lives in the city and I'm sure she'd talk things over with you whenever you wanted, and my teacher Chiron must have dealt with situations like this before. Wrong pantheon I know, but Annabeth's cousin Magnus is the son of Frey and he's Norse. Got the most similar power profile to mine of anyone else I've met. His partner Alex is great. Thor probably knows them. A child of Loki."

Had Jane still been drinking her water, Cassie assumes this moment would include a spit take. "Loki has a kid?!"

Cassie nods. "Two demigod ones knocking around in the world today. Alex and Samirah. They're great. Loki's got some mythological kids too, but those stories are so beyond weird I can't even think about it. And my dad turned an ex-boyfirend in to a flower once."

This little tidbit at least seems to have the effect of distracting Jane from the jumbo jet worth of information she's just dumped on her head. "What, seriously? Which flower? I did a lot of brushing up on Norse myths when Thor first showed up but I didn't get to the Greek stuff."

"I get it, priorities," Cassie says. "I didn't do any Norse research until Magnus rocked in announcing he was a son of Frey who had died and gone to Valhalla, which, as it turns out, has it's mortal access point at a hotel in Boston. Check it out sometime. Anyway yes, seriously. My dad fell in love with a mortal guy named Hyacinth and then some THINGS, capital letters, happened. Now we have pretty purple-blue flowers. They're the only kind that make my eyes water. It's too bad really, I love the color."

Jane is silent for a moment and Cassie takes the time to mentally organize all of the information she can possibly remember about any of Thor's children, both demigod and fully mythological. Fuck if she knows how to broach that topic, but in this situation she's medically on the side of her patient which means giving Jane all the information she needs to make an informed decision. Weather that includes details of her boyfriends mythological personal relationships is just going to have to be a judgement call she plays by ear.

Fortunately for her internal debates on medical malpractice, Jane doesn't ask about Thor's mythological background. Presumably, it's information she's either looked up already or has decided she doesn't want to know. For her sake, Cassie kind of hopes it's the ladder. There's a lot of information on her dad and grandfather that she kind of wishes she had viable brain bleach for.

Unfortunately for Cassie's ongoing and unfortunately demigod-typical inner struggle with creating her own independent identity, Jane does still ask her a question.

"How much of your personality, of who you are, comes from your dad?"

"Honestly?" Cassie says with a sigh. "More than I'm really comfortable with when I think about it that hard. "Physically it's tough to call. Gods can change how they look, but both of the ones in my direct family tree are normally blonde and blue eyed. There's the dyslexia but that's not specific to me, just demigods in general." She considers. "My siblings and I don't like lies. None of us are very good at telling them either. We tend to be honest or silent. There or not. That's a bit sun related maybe. I love music, and healing, and I'm normally friendly though can burn the shit out of people or blind them if needed. Sometimes I'm dramatic though I avoid poetry at all costs, and that bit is different. And hyacinths make me cry."

She stops and breaths again. "The sad truth is that demigods end up getting a lot of nature, and generally less nurture. Percy the son of the sea god is loyal and always there but changeable and unstoppable when he's angry with you. Annabeth the daughter of the goddess of strategy is calculating, shrewd, a builder, loves olives, and hates spiders. Jason son of the king of the gods is a born leader in every sense of the word and quick as air when he wants to be, and you better believe he can add killer turbulence. In actuality, demigods are probably no more influenced by their godly parent than other kids are by their parents, we just have an easily referenced profile of abilities to cross check with."

Jane seems to pause, weighing all of this up in her head. "Is Thor going to be as ridiculous a dad as I think he might be?"

Cassie gives her a small smile, trying to picture the Norse god of thunder with a baby bjorn. "Worse," she promises. "Almost certainly worse."

It takes nearly another two hours for her to get home that evening. When she does she finds Steve sketching on the couch with The Smallest Bob purring and mostly non-skeletal perched behind his head.

She flops down next to him and shuts her eyes.

"Steve?"

"Yeah Cassie?"

"I have had a very strange week at work."

She feels Steve lean over as a kiss brushes over her forehead. The next kiss brushes the bridge of her nose, and the third brings their lips together in a warm and gentle lock. Then a hand brushes back her hair and Steve's other hand takes hers.

"I hear those happen sometimes."

 **A/N: So that's where I went with Thor/Jane. I have always liked Natalie Portman and wish she had been in more of the movies. Don't worry about Valkyrie though, I have other plans for her and I promise the vague shapes they're assuming in my head look awesome. This all plays in to my grand plan. I also wanted to bring Peter in earlier because I needed for that adorable little being to get involved differently than he did in the movies. It's part of my alternate Civil War development. In the next installment the team goes to Africa (and you all know the basics of where they end up from there). I meant to get farther in to that in this chapter, but this felt like the natural stopping point. Review for me! Tell me what you thought! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


	35. Chapter 35

**Disclaimer: Nope**

The reason that Cassie ultimately ends up in Lagos on a fateful day when the whole world really gets down to changing is a surprisingly simple one. A HYDRA agent who used to work on Steve's STRIKE team named Brock Rumlow resurfaces. This by itself wouldn't warrant Cassie's presence on a mission, but what Rumlow shows us buying is a potential biochemical weapon.

Biochemical is kind of a buzz word when it comes to getting Cassie to show up someplace.

This is a concept that makes Steve twitchy, which, Cassie assumes, is because germs have historically gotten much closer to killing him than most bullets or explosives ever have. Her fiance has lived a strange life. Cassie, for her part, has been nearly killed by far more projectile weapons than by germs.

It really is anybody's guess as to weather inoculations or genetics were responsible for that.

Fortunately for everyone involved (excepting the criminal elements of the world intending to cause global havoc with weaponized smallpox and the like) Cassie happens to be, quite literally, blessed with the supernatural ability to suppress diseases. It's a skill she doesn't use on mass very often, but she has game in the field when need be. Apparently, that 'when' is now.

So when the news comes in Cassie boards a flight with Steve, Natasha, Sam, and Wanda along with all of their assorted gear. Nat flies the jet, Barton being on vacation with his sister-in-law and her family with Banner along for the trip at the time. Steve and Sam spend the duration of the fight time going over gear and strategy and Wanda occupies herself with a sudoku puzzle. Apparently, complex number puzzles keep her own mind occupied enough to block out the thoughts of others.

For her part, Cassie spends the flight occupied with her own quiet prep. This involves working through the newest music sample downloaded to her phone curtesy of the Nine Muses. She has to admit, the selections are getting weirder. Despite her father's propensity for shiny clothing, Cassie could personally live with a little less Abba in her life.

And in her ears.

When Steve shoots a questioning glance her direction Cassie pulls a face at him in response. "ABBA," she says by way of explanation. "Big music group from a few decades ago. It's one of those weird music genres where it's not really that good but it gets in your head forever anyway. Investigate if you dare, but having just listened to the full soundtrack I refuse to watch Mama Mia!"

"I think I'll be able to live with that somehow," Steve says, still looking a little non-plussed. "How much spandex was involved?"

"More than your forties stage show," Cassie tells him. "And about ten times as many sequins."

Steve's expression changes to one that tells her he's forming a mental image of what exactly that means. "Okay. Let's assume I've grasped the concept. We'll avoid that and anything to do with disco balls."

"As someone who can read your thoughts I can assure you that you have in fact, accurately pictured what was involved," Wanda contributes. "At least it is accurate from what I could gather from films I watched as a child. Also, please stop picturing nightmares of shiny clothing and catchy lyrics? I would like something else being broadcast in to my mental space if it is at all possible."

Cassie deliberately changes her phone music to the new Hamilton soundtrack. It's been playing on and off in her head for about a month now ever since she had heard it for the first time. Steve's listened to a few of the songs with her in their kitchen with an expression of focus generally associated with combat missions, but she's not sure what his conclusions have been.

The change seems to be a relief for Wanda anyway, who relaxes deeper in to her seat when the lyrics first switch.

The flight is over more quickly than might be expected considering it involves traversing approximately half the globe. Cassie has never had the same problems with air travel that Percy does, but she still remembers the days when it routinely took a week or more just to get herself and three friends across the continental United States. The contrast is definitely surreal despite a decade long adjustment period.

They part ways at a small out of the way airstrip for their individual tactical positions. For Wanda, Natasha, and Cassie this means stations at small caffes and in markets scattered through Lagos with proximity to the targeted Lab. Sam goes on overwatch from the rooftops with the assistance of the new drone Tony had recently programmed in to his flight suit. Steve stays close by him prepared for the When-Things-Go-Wrong moment.

That moment arrives in rather spectacular fashion after a fair amount of time spent waiting around trying to look casual and a bit of tense (though trying for light hearted) banter. A group of heavily armed mercenaries rams a garbage truck straight through the front gates of the Institute for Infectious diseases. This prompts the team to convey themselves to the site pst-haste, particularly once the Institute security staff starts getting murdered.

Their transport methods vary according to ability, personality, and convenience. Wanda uses her powers to manipulate her own molecular density and propels herself over the compound walls at high speeds. Cassie herself absorbs some sunlight and sun-skips right in, all the while hearing Natasha commandeer a motorcycle. Steve takes the opportunity to indulge in his habit of dropping in to dangerous situations from on high by having Sam fly him over the conflict and launch him straight in.

Actually the order of that paragraph is somewhat misleading. Steve arrives on scene first and handily takes out three member of Team Bad Guy through the relatively simple expedient of smashing a car window, using his shield, and then kicking that same car directly in to one of the mercs. Cassie arrives just on time to witness that last move as Steve makes his tactical assessment in to the com.

"Body armor, AR-15s, I make seven hostiles."

The whooshing sounds of air moving quickly followed by some metallic clanging and a quick chatter of gun fire precede Sam's response. "I make five."

"Sam?" Wanda calls and Cassie turns just in time to see her teammate use her telekinetic powers to immobilize and launch one more enemy straight in to the air.

"Four," Sam reports flatly as he dispatches the unfortunate individual. "Rumlowe is on the third floor."

Cassie narrows her vision in on the row of windows marking the floor in question and manages to isolate her focus on their target. "I got him. He's trying to move further in to the lab."

They've gravitated together in the middle of the exterior courtyard, each taking up combat positions. "Wanda, just like we practiced," Steve instructs, moving in to position for a trick Cassie knows will launch him directly through the window closest to their target.

"What about the gas?" Wanda queries. A not unreasonable question considering Cassie's abilities are telling her that the aerosolized compound filling the hallway is definitely the nasty, kill you in seconds, liquifies your eyeballs, choke on your own vomit kind. Steve can hold his breath for up to four minutes if he's at rest, but not while in the midst of hand to hand combat.

"Get it out," Steve instructs crisply building up a jog towards the best launch point.

"Once it's out of the room I can alter the chemical structure," Cassie says as Wanda launches her fiance straight in to a cloud of air borne poison. "It'll render it inert but you gotta get it out of there fast. Hold it in a tight cycle. We can't have any of that compound settling on civilians and we are dead center in a population zone right now."

Wanda nods her acknowledgement as the coms fill with the sound of Steve's shield banging off of walls, floors, and the opposition. A red glow spreads from Wanda's hands, stretching in to the building and emerging dragging a cloud of nasty looking yellow brown particles like an ethereal red fishing line. She thrusts her hands up and the cloud condenses in to a whirling tornado-like funnel.

Cassie extends her own hands and her particular brand of power adds golden tendrils in to the maelstrom. It weaves it's way between the red strands of Wanda's power and in to the poisonous concentration as Cassie focuses her senses on the way that the particles are constructed. It takes a precious twelve seconds of full concentration to slide her brain in to the molecular formation and pick it apart. The process is like untangling headphones not taking a hammer to a broken speaker and if she isn't careful there's a decent chance she could make the compound even more dangerous than it already is.

By the time the cloud is destroyed Sam and Wanda have become occupied with watching her back and Natasha has joined the fray to keep after Rumlowe who has managed to leave the Institute in, as Steve reports, a military vehicle heading North. Presumably, they are heading for the same airstrip the Avengers had used to enter the country. They crash in to the local market and Sam uses his wings to follow and get a preliminary handle on the situation.

"I've got four and they're splitting up."

Natasha has already managed to reclaim her motorcycle and is heading Sam's direction to help. "I've got the two on the left."

Cassie takes a single breath to refocus and shoots a glance at Wanda. "Let's get in there." The other girl nods and takes off. Cassie lets the sun once again take her in and out of space. Given the instantaneous nature of this method, she arrives first and directly on top of one of Natasha's opponents, eliminating the man from the situation almost by accident as her elbow makes contact with a nerve cluster in his neck.

She rolls through the recovery and pops up next to Natasha who has just finished eliminating the other man using an impressively acrobatic leg maneuver. "Nothing eliminates the fun from a combat situation like making it a fair fight," she muses sarcastically.

Cassie is about to form a response when Steve's next report cuts her off. "They've ditched their gear. This is a shell game now. One of them has the payload." This chilling statement is well punctuated by the sound of an explosion very close to Steve's com link. This is further followed by the voice of a pissed off and rather deranged sounding Brock Rumlowe.

"He doesn't have it," Sam reports of his own target. "I'm empty."

"This guy's clear too," Cassie confirms. "We miscounted initially."

"I have followed the thoughts of everyone in the van," Wanda pipes up. "At least two more men are making their way towards the South-East corner of the market."

This is all Cassie and Natasha need to hear to get moving again and the trip through the market is enough to make Cassie retroactively thankful to Chiron for insisting on parkour training. It ends with a standoff against two mercenaries. Natasha has a gun on one of them and Cassie has an arrow drawn and locked on to the other. Unfortunately, the man she's aiming at is holding a chemical weapon vile in his hand and is threatening to drop it. His friend has a gun aimed directly at Natasha's head.

"Drop it!" he orders. "Or I'll drop this."

Cassie is doing a quick calculation in to weather she can make her shot and still catch the vile when the Red Wing drone solves the problem by showing up and firing off two quick shots. Nat fires one more and Cassie makes a quick lunge forwards, catching the tube before it can hit the ground. "Payload secure," Nat says to the drone camera. "Thanks Sam."

"Don't thank me," Sam says cheerfully.

Nat makes a face. "I'm not thanking that thing."

"His name is Red Wing."

"I would be worried about how you've named your robot," Cassie says. "Only Tony names all of his too and actually brought one of them to life. You having a drone for a pet is I guess not the weirdest thing to ever happen in the robot arena for our friend group."

Steve is still engaged in fighting Rumlowe but seems to be holding up pretty well given the grunting and clanging sounds coming over the line. In fact, given the conversation they're having and that Steve has just demanded to know who the buyer is, the fight has evidently reached the interrogation stage. Not bad results for ten minutes or less of combat time.

But Rumlowe's next words make Cassie's blood go cold. "When you gotta go, you gotta go. And you're coming with me."

She doesn't think before she makes her next move. Honestly she doesn't. Not even for a second. She doesn't decide to go, but she blinks and when she opens her eyes again it is to find the scene in front of her obscured by a massive fire ball Wanda seems to be holding together with the last scraps of her energy and will power. Cassie throws her own containment magic in to the mix, collapsing the explosive in and in and in, like a star exploding in to a black hole.

Cassie feels the power shift, intensifying ten-fold as Wanda's strength gives out and Cassie does the only thing she can think to do, aiding in Wanda's final effort. Together they launch the explosive upwards. It's like doubling the strength behind the longest javelin toss of all time as their combined powers clash together around and through the ball of fire. Cassie feels her vision swim as the energy of the explosion slams against her walls, making her mind feel like it's being used as a pinball machine.

And the explosion is still rising, hurtling up and up and up until it hangs against the sky like a miniaturized second sun.

Then the rubber band of her control snaps. Wanda lets out a desperate gasp as her arms drop, and the energy holding the explosion together breaks. The ball explodes in a water balloon of light and fire, scattering debris gods only know how far.

None of the buildings fall.

This is Cassie's first thought as her knees buckle, jarring against the ground. She feels the pain of it in a dull and distant way she's sure will sharpen later. Wanda looks shocked, pale, and terrified. Steve is staring between the two of them and the market, clearly wondering what element of this to try to handle first. The vile they'd come so far for is a cold and malicious weight in Cassie's pocket...

But no buildings fell.

People had a chance to get out of the way. The debris should have been in small enough pieces to avoid damage. They kept the weapon from getting to it's intended buyer.

Cassie thinks of all of this and optimistically wonders if maybe the public fall out from this little excursion won't be so bad.

What can she say?

She's trying to be a more hopeful sort of person these days.

Cue the sardonic, hysterical laughter.

Her vision blurs slightly for the length of a heartbeat and by the time it clears she's already back on her feet and moving. Debris will have scattered outwards and hit god knows how many people. It's also entirely likely given the panicked chaos of the market that several things are on fire that shouldn't be. A quick glance around shows people and vehicles colliding with each other.

Cassie starts forwards and makes it exactly two steps before someone catches at her elbow and she whirls around. "What?" she bites out. "Time is linear, passing, and right now, it's blood."

Steve adjusts his weight backwards a fraction but doesn't let go of her arm. "People will be on their way here now," he says. "Officials. We have to debrief and deal with them and then pull out of here as quickly as possible."

"You have to debrief," Cassie corrects. "I'm the medic and there are people out there who are injured and dying. My chief responsibility in this situation is to them not the government."

She makes to move away again but Steve still hasn't let go so all she can do is take a step and then rock back. She turns her gaze on him, eyes narrowed. "Steve," she says, voice low and measured. "Let. Me. Go."

He does but refuses to move out of her way. "And my responsibility now is to this team which you're on."

"Hippocratic Oath," Cassie snaps back. "Sorry but I take that seriously. It doesn't go away because the situation is going to be politically and logistically inconvenient. Now," she adjusts her equipment bag over her shoulder and crosses her arms over her chest. "I'm going to tell you that I love you and wish you all the luck in the world with dealing with rigid government officials, and I'm going to go do my job. You can return the sentiment and resolve our first ever couples-fight by giving me a kiss goodbye and getting out of my way, or I will zap right around you and do my job anyway and we'll resolve this later when we get home."

What follows that statement is a very peculiar sort of insulated semi-silence. Cassie can see Steve's brain turning over everything she's said as quickly as his super-soldier brain is capable of and settles herself to wait for exactly two breaths for him to get used to the facts. The options she's given him boil down to 'get out of my way or watch me go around you' and that can't be sitting very well. He gives a short nod and for a second Cassie thinks it's going to be option two.

Then he leans down and plants a swift kiss on the top of her head. "Two hours. Stay on coms." His gaze is serious as he says, "we are talking about this later."

Cassie holds his eyes and then nods her agreement. It's a bit of a compromise and altogether a decent conclusion to this scenario. "Two hours." Because that doesn't seem like a good enough ending, Cassie pops up on to her toes and kisses his cheek. "I love you, and good luck."

His fingers brush once over a small, stinging cut near her temple. "I love you too." Then he turns away and begins gathering Nat, Sam, and Wanda around him. "Alright everyone inside now. Police are probably five minutes out given the traffic. We've got that long to regroup and get the story straight."

Cassie takes that as her cue and wades in to the center of the panic to begin treating the injured and coordinating emergency medical efforts. She is, quite obviously, the first on scene and therefore she is the one responsible. She steels herself and folds herself in to the patterns of a chief battlefield medical officer. The first time she ever did this sort of job she had been fourteen. She's gained a lot of experience since then.

She's able to hear the questions the others are getting through her com link and manages to divert enough of her focus to listening that she already has her answers worked out by the time her two hours are up. Those two hours barely let her make a dent in the chaos of the market, but she does manage to stabilize and treat some twenty-odd people herself and funnel several more to the right emergency service members for assistance. It's slower going because she has virtually no magic left in the tank, so all of the trauma work she's doing relies on training and nothing else.

The questions are straight forward and Cassie's answers are as succinct as they can possibly be. It turns out that invoking Top Secret status on your source information has a heck of a way of shortening an investigative interview. In the end, most of what Cassie provides is a quick narrative giving her perspective on the events of the day with specific focus on her individual part in them.

The interview/debrief is nowhere near as arduous as Cassie knows it could have been. However, she's incredibly glad for the truncated length. She's been on her feet for hours and she's completely exhausted. There aren't good enough shoes in the world to compensate for rushing around at nearly top speed for actual hours on end. She's also not eaten since getting on the jet this morning.

Steve, despite the fact that they had a brief spat earlier, is waiting for her to get out of the interview holding out a juice box and a granola bar. "Wanda's been keeping an eye on you," he says by way of explanation. "Apparently, you're hungry."

"Add that to the list of things I'm not used to yet," Cassie says as she takes the offered rations. "Being friends with a mind reader and living in a building run by an omniscient AI. Everything else I think I've adjusted to."

Steve's mouth twitches in to something that might almost be called a smile and tips his head up the hallway. "Nat's got the jet up on the roof," he says. "Sam and Wanda are already on board."

Cassie takes a moment to examine her fiance and the thing that pops out at her most is the fact that he looks about as tired as she feels. His neck and shoulder are still holding all of their tension and he's still wearing his armor. The shield is held loosely at his side and Cassie thinks it probably says something about his current mentality that he still subconsciously seems to feel like he needs. The fingers of his free hand are tapping a staccato rhythm against his thigh. He's clearly itching to be gone and Cassie thinks she may have pushed it about as far as is kind and possible.

"Let's go then," she says, finishing the last of the granola bar and scrunching the wrapper up in her fist. "I'll finish the juice on the way."

A bit of the tension eases out of him at her agreement and Cassie realizes that he'd been worried that she would refuse to leave. He swaps the shield in to his other hand as they make their way to the roof access stairs and his right hand moves to hover near the small of her back. "We'll raid a vending machine on the way," he promises. "I don't think we have any food on the plane."

Cassie gasps in mock shock and horror. "How can this be true?. You, Bucky, and Pietro all use that plane."

"We've got MREs in case we get desperate."

They pass a vending machine half a hallway later and stop as promised. What follows is a moment of silent staring. "So..." Cassie says, drawing the word out like taffy. "I don't suppose you've got any change on you?"

"Nope," Steve says, popping the 'p'. "In a surprise twist in the gender binaries attached to clothes, you are the one with the pockets."

Cassie shakes her head disparagingly. "And guys wonder why women carry hand bags. Design us some clothes with roomy cargo pockets and then we won't have to. Until then, deal with the six pound purse and be warned that they come with weapons training." She says this as she approaches the machine, eyeing the racks speculatively. She gives the machine an experimental shake and a few of the candy bars rattle in their holders. "I can pick it," she offers. "But it's probably easier if you just pick it up and tip it."

Steve gestures her to the side and locks his arms around the sides. "We'll put this down under the unexpected benefits of super strength," he says over the muffles rustles and thumpings of snacks releasing from their holders. "I have to say I doubt that the SSR saw this coming."

He sets the machine upright again and Cassie crouches down to rummage and retrieve their ill-gotten meal. "You never know," she points out. "I still don't know who invented the vending machine. It could have been Howard Stark. Knowing Tony, it seems like the kind of thing his dad might have gone for making."

"Actually it was a guy named Percival Everitt," Steve tells her as he takes the package of Oreos she hands him. "1883. They were for train stations. They used to be for envelopes and note paper so people could write and send letters before they got on board. They didn't have food in them until 1887." Cassie lifts an eyebrow in question and Steve shrugs. "I had them growing up," he explains. "And then I looked up a lot of things when I got out of the ice."

They're to the rooftop access door before they talk again. Cassie reaches out and gently catches at Steve's sleeve. "Are you upset?" she asks quietly. "About earlier? Because if you are, I mean, we do have to talk about it. The way we work together in the field is maybe something we need rules for. We've been taking flyers on it so far, but maybe that's not working so well, and maybe it can't."

Steve slowly releases the push bar along with a deep breath that sounds more tired than it does anything else. "I'm not upset," he says. "I wasn't upset before either. I was just... in the wrong mode to deal with it at that moment. Most of the time when we're in the field either you're fighting too or I have a bigger combat team to coordinate with. Too much was out of my control already, then I made a call and you made an audible- and it was a good one and one you needed to make. But it threw me when I was already off balance and I didn't react well."

Cassie considers that and then gives a slow nod. "I think maybe we both forget that I'm a battlefield medic," she says. "Fighting is something I am capable of. It's not my primary function. Maybe next time we're in the field together we need to keep that more clearly defined somehow. I know things have to be a bit more fluid in battle situations. I'll do what I have to in order to defend myself and others, but maybe I can try to refocus my scope a bit."

Steve reaches out and tips her chin up slightly with two fingers, planting a chaste kiss on her lips before leaning up and placing another on her forehead just between her eyes. Cassie leans in to it and lifts a hand to brush her palms warmly along his forearm, recognizing this moment as a called for truce if they had needed one. "In the Navy a ship's doctor can overrule the Captain whenever called for," he says. "Maybe we can do something like that. Navy rules."

"Percy would like that," Cassie smiles. "Come on," she backs away slightly. "Let's go home."

They board the Quinjet and Nat and Sam take turns at the controls on the flight home. The person Cassie is most worried about is Wanda. The girl sits silent and pale in her seat, barely picking at the food they've managed to collect for her. Instead, she holds her hands out in front of her, projecting bubble after bubble of red containment energy.

Cassie makes a mental not to contact Dr. Green, Bucky's psychologist, to see if he'd be able to help with a telepath with displaced guilt. In fact, both Maximoffs should probably see a psychologist for long time untreated childhood PTSD. _Cassie_ should probably see a psychologist for untreated childhood trauma. Fuck, their whole team should probably just go in for a course of group therapy and call it a day.

Pondering this is more tiring than Cassie had been betting on and somehow in the midst of this muddle of thoughts she seems to fall in to a kind of doze. In fact, she doesn't realize she's fallen asleep at all until Steve is very lightly shaking her awake. Consciousness comes back to her with the snap of a contracting rubber band and she jolts upright.

"We back?"

"Yeah, we just landed at the Upstate place." Steve waits for her to stand up first which maybe he has to given that her head had apparently lolled sideways on to his shoulder in her sleep. The corners of her mouth twitch up for a second. "You've got little creases," he says, gesturing to her left cheek. "I didn't know you could get those from body armor."

Cassie makes a face at him and then reaches down to retrieve her bag from under the seat. "Good thing we have our own landing pad," she says. "If anybody got a picture of this we'd probably get a couple million theories saying I'm dying of a hideous and little known skin disease by tomorrow morning."

"That'd change the news cycle," Sam comments.

"True," Cassie agrees. "Actually Steve, let's go out and find the nearest rabid hoard of paparazzi. If we can convince them I have Shingles for five minutes you can do an anti-vac stump."

"I can fake that with make up," Nat pipes in. "Also chickenpox and scabies."

The eye roll from Steve is almost audible. "I'll bear that in mind," he says. Now everyone get inside and for gods sake go to bed. We'll fill in details with the rest of the team tomorrow."

Nat turns sharply. "I'm telling Clint tonight."

Steve nods. "I figured you would Nat. Reyna and Bucky will probably know by tonight too. Anyone can tell whoever they want tonight, but I still want everyone to get together over it tomorrow. We're going to have international fall out from this and I want everyone on the same page."

"Team breakfast," Sam says with a grin. "What a throwback." He points at Cassie in mock threat. "No magic zapping on to the table."

"Don't worry," Cassie says tiredly as they reach the hallway where they'll all part ways for the night. "My only mode of transport tomorrow is going to be walking. I need some time to recharge. You're still in charge of pancakes though."

"Done."

"Bucky'll do the bacon," Steve decides as they scan through in to their apartment with the help of FRIDAY. "He never let me make it back in the thirties. Apparently mine is not crispy enough."

Cassie smiles as she starts to get changed. "See, this is the stuff that doesn't get put in to history books. Some day the two of you are going to have to sit down, maybe with Peggy if she's having a good day, and just dish on everyone and everything thirties and forties. You met Patton and Churchill. Write up a version with none of the military historical details and just do all the humanizing minutia that keeps getting left out to make historical figures seem like more than they were."

There's a pause and Cassie angles her head to see Steves' face. He's got his head cocked like he's seriously considering the idea. "There's something to that," he decides. "My legend got so damn sanitized along with the rest of the war. The way most stories spin it none of us swore, got injured, or had sex ever. According to most of history we just existed in pristine uniforms beating the Nazis with the power of wholesome ingenuity and the sparkling morality of our dreams."

"Bucky and Peggy would keep you honest and make sure the dirt was equal opportunity," Cassie says, warming to the idea as she sees he is. "You could get our not-a-nurse-neighbor-Kate involved to help. She's Peggy's niece right? I doubt she got the sanitized version of history, and according to SHIELD medical files Gabe Jones' grandson is a Level 6 working on Coulson's new team. His name's Antoine Triplett."

"Not-a-nurse-our-neighbor-not-named-Kate is named Sharon," Steve clarifies as he steps in to the running shower. "And she's Peggy's Great Niece. Peg's brother is Sharon's grandad. Generational separation. I knew Jones had a grandson that worked for SHIELD, but I didn't meet him before we took down the agency. I'm glad he lived through it and didn't turn out to be part of HYDRA."

Cassie peels off the last bit of her armor and rolls her neck to loosen the muscles. "You should invite him for a beer or something some time," she suggests. "I'm sure Fury's got his eye on him. The guy must have stories, ones you were you know, frozen for."

She can hear the sound of the shampoo bottle opening. "I'll talk to Peg first," he says with decision. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's been having the kid over for lunch twice a month since he started pre-school. I'd rather not involve Fury unless I have to."

"When's the last time you talked to her?" Cassie asks. "I chatted with her on the phone for a few minutes two weeks ago about wedding stuff. That's how we decided on the flowers. She had some great color suggestions. Have you seen her since then?"

"I went last Monday," he says over the sound of the water. "She was in and out a lot. She seemed to be doing pretty well in about twenty minute bursts. Told me a few stories about what she and Edwin Jarvis got up to right after the war. I could probably include some of those. I'll ask better questions about it when I go next week."

Cassie grins to herself in the mirror because she knows Steve's decided to do some version of telling his story even if Steve doesn't know he has yet. Then the shower door slides open and Steve pokes his head out. "You coming in? This shower is ridiculous."

Steve says this with messy hair, glistening skin, looking gorgeous and smelling amazing. It is all together impossible for Cassie to deny an offer like that. Instead of even trying to, she strips off the rest of her clothes and in to the spray and Steve's waiting arms.

"Water conservation is incredibly important."

That lovely shower is something that she holds on to because it's about the last truly pleasant experience she has for a little while.

The day starts to go down hill very shortly after the team debriefing pancake breakfast. The bacon is perfectly crispy being just on the ideal verge of burned. The pancakes have just enough sugar in them to be sweet but not sickly. Natasha shows up with homemade orange juice made possible courtesy of Meg's new greenhouses and a little bit of godly powers coming in to assist.

Steve goes to seek out Wanda to talk to her about the events of the day before and Cassie makes her way across the complex to her office to work for a few hours. She treats a few minor injuries amongst the trainees and then puts in a call to Dr. Green to leave a very cryptic message with his discrete and ambiguous sounding office assistant. Next she debates calling Chiron. The centaur has about three thousand years worth of experience talking heroes through their trauma. It's entirely possible he'd be able to help.

She has her mind just about made up and is actually reaching for her phone when FRIDAY comes on over the speaker. "Sorry to interrupt your work Dr. Morgenstern," it says. "A General Thaddeus Ross is in the main conference room waiting to speak to the Avengers. The team is currently in the process of gathering."

Cassie drops her phone back in to her jeans pocket and shrugs off her lab coat, hanging it over the back of her office chair. "Okay, thanks FRIDAY. Please tell the others that I'm on my way, and mark that I'm out of the office on the computer system. Call my brother and let him know he's in charge for the next few hours. Unless Ross wants to talk to him too, then anyone who needs to will have to be referred to one of the NPs. I think that's Anna and Carlo today."

"Yes Dr. Morgenstern."

Thinking that time might be a factor, Cassie commandeers one of the gulf carts to get back over to the block of buildings with the private conference space the team will be in. Despite that measure, the rest of the team has already arrived before she has. Most of them happen to be glaring at a man who presents the exact physical image of the Modern Major Asshole.

The man has a reddish hue in his greying face which inclines Cassie towards the diagnosis of some kind of heart disease, probably being treated via daily oral medication. His hair is streaked salt and pepper in a way that looks almost too purposeful to have come purely from aging and his eyes are an unnaturally pale shade of blue and have receded slightly backwards in to the flesh of his face. He's wearing the kind of smile that is so obviously artificial that you normally only saw it's like on the mouths of politicians during an election year. It's decorated with a nearly comically full black mustache.

Cassie recognizes the name and the face from the files she was given to read on the experiments that ultimately led to the creation of the Hulk. A quick glance around shows her that Bruce isn't in the room. She spares a moment to feel grateful for that. The last thing they need right now is a visit from The Other Guy if a man like Ross is making personal house calls.

She catches Steve's glance and takes the empty seat his eyes flick to next to him. Clearly it's been left open for her and the cue isn't difficult to interpret. It doesn't escape her notice that their very seating arrangements are playing at politics and presentation. She wonders if Reyna managed to maneuver things like this on purpose. If she did, then Cassie's impressed because the calls would have had to have been made in the five minute time window between Ross entering the apartment and arriving in the conference room.

Reyna herself is seated to Bucky's left. Bucky is to the left of Steve who is anchoring one end of the table. Cassie's allotted space is across from Bucky on Steve's other side. Tony is at the opposite end of the table from Steve between Vision and Rhodey. Thor is crammed in to the office chair next to Vision with hammer in hand and Sam is to Rhodeys other side. Pietro is beside his sister with Natasha close by. Clint is away with Bruce, and Meg and Jane are both carefully out of the room.

Once they're seated their little lecture begins.

"Five years ago I had a heart attack," Ross says, going for a soft open complete with mimed golf swing. "Right in the middle of my back swing. Turns out it was the best round of my life because after thirteen hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something that thirty years in the army never taught me..."

It takes everything Cassie has not to mutter something along the lines of 'human decency? Oh wait, you still don't have that do you?'

"Perspective. Te world owes the Avengers an un payable debt. You've fought for us, protected us, risked your lives. But while a great many people see you as heroes there are some who would prefer the word vigilantes."

"And what word would you use Mr. Secretary?" asks Natasha with the polite innocence of inquiry reserved for those she trusts less than she could throw a mid-sized SUV.

Ross apparently doesn't pick up on the tone because he answers the question seriously. "How about dangerous? What would you call a group of U.S based enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders, who inflict their will wherever they choose, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind, and who," he levels a sidelong look at Cassie. "Conceal the full scope of their abilities." He proceeds to pull up video footage of wreckage from each of their major battle sights including Lagos.

"That's enough," Steve says coldly.

Ross stops the video. "For the last few years you've operated with almost no supervision, and that's something that the governments of the world can no longer tolerate." This is clearly the critical point of his presentation and he backs it up by announcing the 'solution', a document the size of a small dictionary cheaply and unfairly entitled the Sokovia Accords.

"Aproved by one hundred and forty seven countries it states that the Avengers will no longer be a private organization. Instead they'll operate under the supervision of the United Nations panel only when and if that panel deems it necessary." He says all this while pacing around the room, circling them like a shark waiting for first blood to drip in to the water. A classic intimidation tactic. The man is trying to own the room and by extension everyone in it.

"The Avengers were created to make the world a safer place," Steve points out. "I feel we've done that."

"Tell me Captain," Ross replies. "Did you know what abilities your fiance had at her fingertips before yesterday? I've seen the footage from Sokovia. Where are the individuals who helped then. The one resurrecting skeletons and the two who caused a localized hurricane are of particular interest. The girl with the mass verbal hypnosis can't be found or identified either. Where is Dr. Banner right now? If I'd misplaced a few megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences. Compromise and reassurance are how the world works. Believe me, this is the middle ground."

Rhodes leans forwards, tapping his fingers against the accords. "So there are contingencies?"

"Three days from now the UN mets in Vienna to ratify the Accords," Ross replies. "I'll leave you to talk it over."

Steve seems to have already started a private conversation with Tony as Ross makes his way to the door.

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" Nat asks.

Ross stops and circles back to the table. "Then you'll retire."

It's flat and cold and not a little bit threatening in terms of exit lines.

They all sit in silence until FRIDAY assures them that the man has left the building. Then everyone gets up and shifts. Tony, Steve, and Vision as the fastest readers present poor over the document and being scanning through it at hyper speed. Wanda and Pietro begin a rapid dialogue in Sokovian that Cassie can't follow and Sam and Rhodes put their heads together, probably discussing the militant legality of such a document based on their combined knowledge.

Cassie turns to Reyna. "One hundred and forty seven countries," she says. "One hundred and forty seven countries can't agree to something like this in under twenty-four hours at all. Much less do it so quietly that we don't hear about it until now. Hades, one country at a time can't do that."

"Not unless the governments of the world are significantly more efficient than the senate of New Rome," Reyna confirms. "Which, having coordinated with the U.S government for press, is something I doubt very much."

Stark has backed away from the accords, instead shoving them in to Steve's hands. "FRIDAY, first call Pepper and get her over here with Katy. Tell her code Mauve. Then call every lawyer I have on retainer and get them out here. I've made it through exactly twelve pages of this and I already have a headache from trying to translate Legalese."

"Initially I don't have a problem with some government oversight," Rhodes offers. "I basically had that job looking after Tony for the military back when SE was still doing service contracts. Maybe we can negotiate some kind of lesser liaison position instead of whatever that dead tree over there signs us up for. Ross might be more open to it then we think. He's got a Congressional Medal of Honor. If one hundred and forty seven countries want to sign this thing I don't think we can just brush it off."

Steve is frowning at the papers. "Bucky and I both got those posthumously," he points out. "Plus silver and bronze stars, and the Distinguished Service Cross. I don't think the medals are what they're looking for in an overseer."

"Plus we don't have long enough to negotiate," Reyna points out. "Three days is not enough time to go thirty rounds on something like this, and that's about how much it would take. My view of this is that they pitched it this way on purpose. They didn't want time to have our input or let us make changes. From a negotiating standpoint, they want us backed in to a corner with no way out except to do what they want."

"Which is what exactly?" Pietro asks, fingers drumming so quickly along his thigh that the digits are blurring together. "I understand the idea of the U.N deciding how we are involved. Saying that does not take two hundred pages of small print."

Vision is the one to answer. He's about halfway through the document already, kindly holding both his place and Steve's as he fans through the pages. "Monitoring for a start," he says. "Along with the registration of all enhanced individuals complete with an assessment of their abilities. They also discuss designations and measures that could be taken to ensure the safe containment of those individuals whom they designate as dangerous or unstable."

"So just about everyone in this room," Cassie summarizes. "Except for maybe Rhodey, Reyna, and Sam. And technically Reyna is still dangerous. She's just also stable."

"I wouldn't say that's how I'm feeling at the moment," Reyna says contemplatively. "In fact, at the moment I feel pretty excessively agitated."

Wanda spins a loop of energy between her fingers like she's doing Cats Cradle. "That is a remarkably good general assessment of the current mood within this room."

Sam leans forwards. "Speaking as one of the stable people, how long until they lojack us like common criminals?"

"About three days," Vision declares, still looking through the papers. "However, I agree with Colonel Rhodes that the general idea of oversight bears some merit. In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Ironman the number of enhanced individuals has increased exponentially. The number of world ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"It hasn't," Cassie disagrees. "The number that are announced and covered on TV, yeah that's gone up. The number that take place is the same as it has been since I was thirteen. Between two and six events a year, and between three and five hundred enhanced individuals if you count children with Greco-Roman, Norse, or Egyptian godly heritage. Add a dozen Avengers and attacks like Loki and Ultron and the numbers don't change that much."

Vision tips his head like he's running the numbers before giving a small nod. "I concede the mathematical point," he decides. "I was not working with full data. Do forgive me Doctor. Still, strength invites challenge, challenge incites conflict, and conflict breads catastrophe. As a united force, we are very strong indeed."

"He is afraid," Wanda says quietly. "Secretary Ross. He is afraid of us. Of what our freedom may mean. He sees us as weapons not people. And he does not like weapons that he cannot control."

Shockingly, Nat manages a small smile. "'Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering'," she quotes, doing a remarkable impression of Yoda.

"Every war since the dawn of time has had collateral damage," Thor says, weighing in for the first time. "You all may do as they like. Each warrior has command over their own soul. I myself am pledged to uphold the laws of Asgard and my responsibilities as Prince of the realm. I will go where my presence is called for. I am a god. A piece of paper gives no mortal body power over me." He stands from his chair. "I have contemplated taking Jane and the unborn child to Asgard but waited because this is Jane's home and we believed this realm safe. Should that prove not to be true, I will not hesitate to remove them to a place of greater security."

A beat of silence follows this pronouncement before Stark speaks. "Congratulations on that I guess."

A smile splits Thor's face. "Thank you. It has been quite a long time since I had the idea of fatherhood to look forward to."

What follows that is a short but heartfelt round of congratulatory hugs and back slapping. It causes a little bit of cognitive dissonance, but it also feels healthier than any other part of their afternoon. It's a normalized group social interaction, and that's something they need.

"I will pass your well wishes along to Jane," Thor promises. "We thought it better she not attend this meeting when we did not know what it concerned. Now it seems that choice was a good one."

"I agree," Cassie says fervently. "Did you guys see the way Ross looked at me? The guy doesn't even know what half-bloods are yet and he already wants to put us on a list just for existing. I doubt he'd behave all that rationally if he knew the Norse god of thunder and his Extremis altered girlfriend were expecting."

Bucky shifts and then speaks for the first time since Ross walked in to the conference room. "Registering people for how they're born," he looks at Steve. "Seems to me that last time we noticed that happening we put together a team and airdropped in to Germany."

Steve doesn't respond immediately, and that pause as well as the fact that his left hand is suddenly gripping hers under the table is enough to make Cassie turn her head to look at him. He's looking at the screen of his phone not the text of the accords and he looks- gods he looks so, so, so unbelievably tired. He lifts his head at the descending silence and sighs heavily at seeing everyone's eyes on him. Then he sits back, straightens his shoulders, takes on one more weight from the universe.

"Peggy Carter died last night."

Cassie presses her free palm over her mouth for a moment and then tightens her grip on his hand, leaning her head against his shoulder. Maybe it doesn't help him, but the contact helps her. Bucky stands and comes around behind Steve to grip his shoulder. More than a few people are covertly wiping their eyes and are displaying the pallor of the shock that comes with loss.

Tony has his shoulders hunched over and his face is buried in his hands. He doesn't lift it to speak so his voice comes out muffled. "Her funeral, it'll be in London?"

Steve opens his mouth to speak but has to stop and swallow before he can try to speak. He tries again before giving up and the lost expression on his face is almost worse than an overt display of grief. Bucky's hand tightens on his shoulder and then James Barnes plays the part he always has, protecting Steve Rogers from everything he can.

"Yeah," he answers. "Her grandniece Sharon sent the details. Two days from now."

"Right before theses things are supposed to be signed," Pietro says, eyeing the stack of papers with marked distaste.

Tony's head shoots up and Cassie doesn't think she's imagining the glassiness of his eyes or the reddened tissue around them. "Screw the damn signing," he spits out. "Peggy Carter was at my mom and dads funeral and she took care of me for three months afterwards. Tomorrow morning anyone who wants to go to London is getting on a jet with me and we're paying our respects."

Steve stares at him and then nods like something in the other man's face means he's passed some sort of test. "We'll do it quietly," he decides. "It's about her not us. No speaking from any of us. We'll go, we'll listen, and we'll remember her."

One by one the entire roster of the Avengers nods. The anxiety of the room has been displaced. Instead, grief fills the air like an ever expanding balloon, filling the empt spaces like winter wind that gets to your skin no matter how many layers of clothes you wear.

Reyna is the one to move. She crosses to a sideboard and pours a single finger of whiskey in to each glass and passes them around. "The Romans invented the idea of making toasts," she says. "They used to believe that putting a piece of charred bread in to the wine improved the flavor. That's where the word comes from. It became a suspicion that drinking a blessing without putting the bread in would bring bad luck."

Cassie gives her friend a small smile and takes her own glass in hand.

She raises it before her. Light from the window catches the amber liquid in the glass and makes it sparkle with golden tones. Sunshine in liquid contained in crystal.

"To a defender of those who deserved it, a protector of all, a kind woman, and a human who truly lived up to her legend."

Natasha lifts her glass. "To the first Director."

They all sip once and then Steve lifts his glass again. His voice is soft and raw, emptied out and filled back up again with pain and grief.

"To Peggy."

 **A/N: So what did you think? I know it's been a while and I'm SO SORRY. My only excuse is that my job ended up taking more time out of my summer than I thought it would. I also had to be really careful in this chapter to set up my changes for CACW. More to come so buckle in and prepare to leave cannon far behind us. Any thoughts you guys have are ones I'd love to hear. Reviews and suggestions make it fun! Review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**


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